Category: backdoors

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New Revelations from the Snowden Documents

Posted on By infossl
academic papers, backdoors, cryptography, Edward Snowden, nsa, privacy, Schneier news, Security technology, surveillance, Uncategorized

Jake Appelbaum’s PhD thesis contains several new revelations from the classified NSA documents provided to journalists by Edward Snowden. Nothing major, but a few more tidbits. Kind of amazing that that all happened ten years ago. At this point, those documents are more historical than anything else. And it’s unclear who has those archives anymore. … Read More “New Revelations from the Snowden Documents” »

Microsoft Signing Key Stolen by Chinese

Posted on By infossl
authentication, backdoors, china, cybersecurity, hacking, keys, microsoft, Security technology, Uncategorized

A bunch of networks, including US Government networks, have been hacked by the Chinese. The hackers used forged authentication tokens to access user email, using a stolen Microsoft Azure account consumer signing key. Congress wants answers. The phrase “negligent security practices” is being tossed about—and with good reason. Master signing keys are not supposed to … Read More “Microsoft Signing Key Stolen by Chinese” »

Backdoor in TETRA Police Radios

Posted on By infossl
backdoors, cryptography, eavesdropping, encryption, infrastructure, law enforcement, police, radio, Security technology, Uncategorized

Seems that there is a deliberate backdoor in the twenty-year-old TErrestrial Trunked RAdio (TETRA) standard used by police forces around the world. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), an organization that standardizes technologies across the industry, first created TETRA in 1995. Since then, TETRA has been used in products, including radios, sold by Motorola, Airbus, … Read More “Backdoor in TETRA Police Radios” »

Putting Undetectable Backdoors in Machine Learning Models

Posted on By infossl
academic papers, backdoors, machine learning, Security technology, Uncategorized

This is really interesting research from a few months ago: Abstract: Given the computational cost and technical expertise required to train machine learning models, users may delegate the task of learning to a service provider. Delegation of learning has clear benefits, and at the same time raises serious concerns of trust. This work studies possible … Read More “Putting Undetectable Backdoors in Machine Learning Models” »

Manipulating Weights in Face-Recognition AI Systems

Posted on By infossl
academic papers, backdoors, face recognition, Security technology, Uncategorized

Interesting research: “Facial Misrecognition Systems: Simple Weight Manipulations Force DNNs to Err Only on Specific Persons“: Abstract: In this paper we describe how to plant novel types of backdoors in any facial recognition model based on the popular architecture of deep Siamese neural networks, by mathematically changing a small fraction of its weights (i.e., without … Read More “Manipulating Weights in Face-Recognition AI Systems” »

Trojaned Windows Installer Targets Ukraine

Posted on By infossl
backdoors, malware, russia, Security technology, supply chain, torrents, ukraine, Uncategorized

Mandiant is reporting on a trojaned Windows installer that targets Ukrainian users. The installer was left on various torrent sites, presumably ensnaring people downloading pirated copies of the operating system: Mandiant uncovered a socially engineered supply chain operation focused on Ukrainian government entities that leveraged trojanized ISO files masquerading as legitimate Windows 10 Operating System … Read More “Trojaned Windows Installer Targets Ukraine” »

Inserting a Backdoor into a Machine-Learning System

Posted on By infossl
academic papers, backdoors, machine learning, Security technology, Uncategorized

Interesting research: “ImpNet: Imperceptible and blackbox-undetectable backdoors in compiled neural networks, by Tim Clifford, Ilia Shumailov, Yiren Zhao, Ross Anderson, and Robert Mullins: Abstract: Early backdoor attacks against machine learning set off an arms race in attack and defence development. Defences have since appeared demonstrating some ability to detect backdoors in models or even remove … Read More “Inserting a Backdoor into a Machine-Learning System” »

Symbiote Backdoor in Linux

Posted on By infossl
backdoors, linux, malware, Security technology, Uncategorized

Interesting: What makes Symbiote different from other Linux malware that we usually come across, is that it needs to infect other running processes to inflict damage on infected machines. Instead of being a standalone executable file that is run to infect a machine, it is a shared object (SO) library that is loaded into all … Read More “Symbiote Backdoor in Linux” »

New Sophisticated Malware

Posted on By infossl
backdoors, botnets, malware, Security technology, threat models, Uncategorized

Mandiant is reporting on a new botnet. The group, which security firm Mandiant is calling UNC3524, has spent the past 18 months burrowing into victims’ networks with unusual stealth. In cases where the group is ejected, it wastes no time reinfecting the victim environment and picking up where things left off. There are many keys … Read More “New Sophisticated Malware” »

New German Government is Pro-Encryption and Anti-Backdoors

Posted on By infossl
backdoors, encryption, germany, national security policy, privacy, Security technology, Uncategorized

I hope this is true: According to Jens Zimmermann, the German coalition negotiations had made it “quite clear” that the incoming government of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the business-friendly liberal FDP would reject “the weakening of encryption, which is being attempted under the guise of the fight against child abuse” by the … Read More “New German Government is Pro-Encryption and Anti-Backdoors” »