Enhanced Carnivore To Crack Encryption Via Virus

suqur writes: "MSNBC has a story about a new Carnivore feature, dubbed 'Magic Lantern,' which arrives on a victim's computer in the form of a virus through email or well-known vulnerabilities. Magic Lantern uses keylogging to extract keys typed in, and sends them off to the FBI. This is similar to a story reported on previously, but taken one step further, allowing computers to be compromised remotely."

well i guess this is a continuation

[perdida]

of the case against Microsoft by disgruntled federal employees.

Mail-virus attachments are best contracted via Outlook or web mail clients; anybody with advanced security will not have a problem here.

Unless the government starts persecuting people on Linux and *BSD systems, because they are inimical to the FBI's spying methods.

Foucault's Panopticon, here we come..

Encryption program name

[Violet Null]

It watches for a suspect to start a popular encryption program called Pretty Good Privacy. It then logs the passphrase used to start the program, essentially given agents access to keys needed to decrypt files.

If this is true, then it would seem all you need to do to foil this latest slightly-hare-brained-scheme would be to rename pgp to something else, such as goawayfbi.

Re:In other news...

[Brand X]

At least they still need a warrant to do this, right? right?

Assuming this applies:

Word of the FBI's new software comes on the heels of a major victory for the use of Carnivore. The USA Patriot Act, passed last month, made it a little easier for the bureau to deploy the software. Now agents can install it simply by obtaining an order from a U.S. or state attorney general -- without going to a judge. After-the-fact judicial oversight is still required.

No. That's... well, I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't sound like a warrant to me.

Re:AV software.

[Bill Barth]

F-PROT [fprot.org] anyone?

Used to be the best in the world, may still be.

DMCA Exempt

[rsimmons]

Even though this sort of curcumvention measure is illegal under the DMCA for a private citizen, the DMCA also includes language that makes law enforcement exempt from these very laws.

Re:Firewall

[Anonymous Coward]

It has been shown that apps can piggyback on top of Internet Explorer DLLs, if you've got it listed as one of your trusted applications. The trojan would not be detected by ZoneAlarm or any other personal "firewall"

Have a look at what The Register [theregister.co.uk] has to say about this.

Re:Good luck...

[pa-guy]

Uhm..... One word:tripwire. Doesn't use gpg, but instead keeps track of quite a number of different file attributes. Here [tripwire.org] is a little more info.

Re:AV software.

[jth1234567]

The link you provided goes to a german software reseller, the official site for f-secure anti-virus (and older f-prot) is http://www.f-secure.com/products/anti-virus/ [f-secure.com]

I've got a huge problem with this

[Velex]

...as long as it requires a warrant before it can be used.

No, you're missing the point. If the FBI could get a warrant on you, they'd just require you to give them your passphrase, or just subpeona the information that was encrypted in the first place. The reason that the FBI needs this is because they know that they can't get warrants for what they want to do, because it's illegal and they have no probable cause for sticking their noses in your business.

You know that if the FBI can't get a warrant for the information in the first place, they won't be able to get a warrant for this either, so what would they plan to do with it, other than break the law?

this is meaningless now

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry to inform you all about this, but the recently passed "Anti-Terroism bill" makes it easier for the FBI to ask england to get information on a suspected criminal, because now evidence from a "foriegn" nation is admissable in court no matter how it was retreived. so you no longer have protection against an illegal search, because our government just needs to ask someone else's government to do the breakin for them.

Also if you read the new Anti-Terroism bill you will find that the wire taping rights have been expanded, and this might not be illegal anymore.

for more information on the homeland security act check out aclu archives [aclu.org]