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NSA targeted Tor users via Firefox flaw, reports say

Treacle

Treacle

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The NSA attempted to monitor Tor users by using security holes in the Firefox web browser, according to reports.

The US agency broke into computers to try to look at Tor anonymous communications, documents leaked by Edward Snowden have suggested.

The National Security Agency (NSA) had difficulty in undermining the encrypted Tor service itself, they said.

A security expert said the NSA appeared not to have yet managed to crack Tor.

US signals intelligence agency the NSA, and its UK counterpart GCHQ, have been involved in long-term efforts to try to undermine the Tor online anonymity service, according to leaked documents published by the Guardian newspaper.

The NSA and GCHQ have been implicated in spying on mass communications in a number of documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Tor (The Onion Router) tries to hide user identities, and the websites that people are looking at, by routing encrypted internet traffic through a number of volunteer computers.

One of the ways the NSA tried to get around Tor encryption was to infect Tor users' computers instead, according to a Guardian report.
Attempts to crack Tor

The leaked document, called "Tor Stinks", said that the NSA had no success in revealing Tor communications between criminal suspects.

Nevertheless, the agency had managed to "de-anonymise a very small fraction of Tor users".

The document outlined different avenues the NSA had explored, including placing small pieces of data called cookies on users' machines.

The agency also suggested slowing down communications over Tor using its own network of computers running Tor.

The NSA has the ability to "stain" people's website traffic as it enters Tor, and to identify it as it leaves, according to leaked documents published by the Washington Post.
Firefox infection

The NSA allegedly infected computers in an attempt to look at web traffic at both ends of the encrypted Tor communication path, rather than decrypt the path itself.

The agency used links with US telecoms companies to sift vast amounts of internet data and identify traffic from computers connecting to Tor, the report said.

Once the users' machines were identified, the NSA allegedly used secret internet servers, codenamed FoxAcid, to infect the computers with malicious software.

The NSA used software called EgotisticalGiraffe to attack vulnerable older versions of the Firefox web browser, the report said.

Firefox is included in a bundle of software provided to get users up and running with Tor.

The Tor service is intended for legitimate use by people in repressive regimes, but law enforcement agencies have been concerned that Tor can hide criminal and terrorist activity.

The US government published a statement on Friday saying that its interest in Tor and other means of online communication "is based on the undeniable fact that these are the tools our adversaries use to communicate and co-ordinate attacks against the United States and our allies".

Security expert Steven Murdoch said it was "strangely comforting" that the NSA had not managed to crack Tor.

"Tor seems not to be the weakest link," said Mr Murdoch, a Cambridge University researcher who contributes to the Tor Project.

"It looks like the weakest link is software on people's computers, in this case, older versions of Firefox," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24429332

This isn't news to me, because this came out a while ago, but there's more detail here. The fact they used terrorists as the main reason for wanting to crack Tor is a joke. I've not heard of any terrorists being arrested, and having their sites taken down.
 
Few things that massively help secutiry:

Make sure you use an up to date tor browser, this i think and other past exploits have been patched

TURN OFF JAVASCRIPT IN THE BROWSER
 
Treacle said:
The fact they used terrorists as the main reason for wanting to crack Tor is a joke. I've not heard of any terrorists being arrested, and having their sites taken down.
Click to expand...

This is a particularly damning fact about this whole sordid NSA bizniz. It's been made abundantly clear that they've been snooping on a massive scale - far more so than all but those of us who savour the psychosis of a lengthy peev run ever imagined. But in all that time when it seems they have had access to more or less everything more or less everyone does online they don't seem to have prevented - or even detected - any significant criminal activity. Other than targeting SR, of course. Clearly the War on Drugs is far more important to them than the War on Terror. They trot out this "terrorist" bullshit line all the time but actions - specifically inactions in this case - speak louder than words :\

It really does look like they are far more interested in simply gathering vasty quantities of personal information and data on basically everybody who uses the intrawebz. George Orwell must be kicking himself somewhere cos even he couldn't have imagine quite how bad Big Brother is in practice :\
 
roganjosh said:
This. Tor Project should have this set by default when you download it imo.
Click to expand...
The Tor browser was Mozilla Aurora, an alpha build of Firefox, I think. It had 'No Script' installed as default, for a while. They've now switched to a special build of Firefox. I'm not sure how long ago the NSA supposedly did this hacking, but it must have been quite a while ago.

Shambles: Totally agree, mate. They want drugs and Bitcoins gone, more than anything else.
 
I don't think they want to win either the War on Terror or the War on Drugs. Both of them are key justifications for hundreds of thousands of government jobs, and for spending billions on the services of private capital. All these cunts want them both to last for ever.
 
I assume he means the subject of my thread. I did say this wasn't news to me, so I guessed others would know, I just wanted to start some discussion about it, Droppersneck.
 
Treacle said:
I assume he means the subject of my thread. I did say this wasn't news to me, so I guessed others would know, I just wanted to start some discussion about it, Droppersneck.
Click to expand...

Right on but wouldnt they want yall to merge it to one thread? It is really interesting how they did it. I wonder what the future sites will do to cover their asses..
 
Which other threads are there, which are talking specifically about the exploits in the Tor bundle?
 
Droppersneck, IMO you're way off target. This is a valid topic of discussion, I don't see why it shouldn't have it's own thread. So let's just talk about the subject and if you want to talk about merging threads go to metathread megathread.


But I'd like to see your passport before I take your posts too seriously.
 
and if ^ that idea gets rejected cos it's in another forum, then this one

[edit]

Ceres could probably pull about 7 of his own posts from the last year or two (prior to the PRISM thing anyway) and say 'these ones'
 
I did mean in EADD (as I know a lot of people don't venture out), and the PRISM thread isn't just about this exploit, so it may not have been seen. Anyway...
 
desertshore said:
Btw, we can't be sure: maybe they did crack TOR.
Click to expand...

It's unlikely. If 'they' (and I assume you mean the NSA/GCHQ, not general law enforcement) did crack it, they certainly don't seem to have used this breakthrough to bust people like NOD. And as his case seems to involve a year of surveillance, of one of the top 1% of SR's vendors, you would have thought the NSA would have filtered down some of this success in order to help save the children or whatever it is these guys and gals justify their behaviour with.
 
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