More NSA hanky-panky

[Ahriman238]

Perhaps we need a sticky thread for this too?

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Security industry pioneer RSA adopted not just one but two encryption tools developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, greatly increasing the spy agency's ability to eavesdrop on some Internet communications, according to a team of academic researchers.


Reuters reported in December that the NSA had paid RSA $10 million to make a now-discredited cryptography system the default in software used by a wide range of Internet and computer security programs. The system, called Dual Elliptic Curve, was a random number generator, but it had a deliberate flaw - or "back door" - that allowed the NSA to crack the encryption.

A group of professors from Johns Hopkins, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois and elsewhere now say they have discovered that a second NSA tool exacerbated the RSA software's vulnerability.

The professors found that the tool, known as the "Extended Random" extension for secure websites, could help crack a version of RSA's Dual Elliptic Curve software tens of thousands of times faster, according to an advance copy of their research shared with Reuters.

While Extended Random was not widely adopted, the new research sheds light on how the NSA extended the reach of its surveillance under cover of advising companies on protection.

RSA, now owned by EMC Corp, did not dispute the research when contacted by Reuters for comment. The company said it had not intentionally weakened security on any product and noted that Extended Random did not prove popular and had been removed from RSA's protection software in the last six months.

"We could have been more skeptical of NSA's intentions," RSA Chief Technologist Sam Curry told Reuters. "We trusted them because they are charged with security for the U.S. government and U.S. critical infrastructure."

Curry declined to say if the government had paid RSA to incorporate Extended Random in its BSafe security kit, which also housed Dual Elliptic Curve.

An NSA spokeswoman declined to comment on the study or the intelligence agency's motives in developing Extended Random.

The agency has worked for decades with private companies to improve cybersecurity, largely through its Information Assurance Directorate. After the 9/11 attacks, the NSA increased surveillance, including inside the United States, where it had previously faced strict restrictions.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed that the agency also aimed to subvert cryptography standards. A presidential advisory group in December said that practice should stop, though experts looking at the case of Dual Elliptic Curve have taken some comfort in concluding that only the NSA could likely break it.

"It's certainly well-designed," said security expert Bruce Schneier, a frequent critic of the NSA. "The random number generator is one of the better ones."

RANDOM NUMBERS

Cryptography experts have long been suspicious of Dual Elliptic Curve, but the National Institute of Standards and Technology and RSA only renounced the technology after Snowden leaked documents about the back door last year.

That was also when the academic team set out to see if they could break Dual Elliptic Curve by replacing two government-issued points on the curve with their own. The professors plan to publish a summary of their study this week and present their findings at a conference this summer.

Random numbers are used to generate cryptographic keys - if you can guess the numbers, you can break the security of the keys. While no random number generator is perfect, some generators were viewed as more predictable than others.

In a Pentagon-funded paper in 2008, the Extended Random protocol was touted as a way to boost the randomness of the numbers generated by the Dual Elliptic Curve.

But members of the academic team said they saw little improvement, while the extra data transmitted by Extended Random before a secure connection begins made predicting the following secure numbers dramatically easier.

"Adding it doesn't seem to provide any security benefits that we can figure out," said one of the authors of the study, Thomas Ristenpart of the University of Wisconsin.

Johns Hopkins Professor Matthew Green said it was hard to take the official explanation for Extended Random at face value, especially since it appeared soon after Dual Elliptic Curve's acceptance as a U.S. standard.

"If using Dual Elliptic Curve is like playing with matches, then adding Extended Random is like dousing yourself with gasoline," Green said.

The NSA played a significant role in the origins of Extended Random. The authors of the 2008 paper on the protocol were Margaret Salter, technical director of the NSA's defensive Information Assurance Directorate, and an outside expert named Eric Rescorla.

Rescorla, who has advocated greater encryption of all Web traffic, works for Mozilla, maker of the Firefox web browser. He and Mozilla declined to comment. Salter did not respond to requests for comment.

Though few companies appear to have embraced Extended Random, RSA did. The company built in support for the protocol in BSafe toolkit versions for the Java programming language about five years ago, when a preeminent Internet standards group - the Internet Engineering Task Force - was considering whether to adopt Extended Random as an industry standard. The IETF decided in the end not to adopt the protocol.

RSA's Curry said that if Dual Elliptic Curve had been sound, Extended Random would have made it better. "When we realized it was not likely to become a standard, we did not enable it in any other BSafe libraries," he added.

The academic researchers said it took about an hour to crack a free version of BSafe for Java using about $40,000 worth of computer equipment. It would have been 65,000 times faster in versions using Extended Random, dropping the time needed to seconds, according to Stephen Checkoway of Johns Hopkins.

The researchers said it took them less than 3 seconds to crack a free version of BSafe for the C programming language, even without Extended Random, because it already transmitted so many random bits before the secure connection began. And it was so inexpensive it could easily be scaled up for mass surveillance, the researchers said.

(Editing by Edwin Chan and Tiffany Wu)

Acting as consultants on data security and slipping in their own backdoors for encryption and computer security, stay classy NSA.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Why exactly hasn't Congress told the NSA to stop shit like this?

I thought that the NSA/CIA etc weren't allowed to work on US territory anyway.

[Raw Shark]

Why exactly hasn't Congress told the NSA to stop shit like this?

Inadequate awareness and volume of current displays of outrage among the people, mostly. We'll see what happens if more shit like this comes to light close enough to November.

I thought that the NSA/CIA etc weren't allowed to work on US territory anyway.

The agency has worked for decades with private companies to improve cybersecurity, largely through its Information Assurance Directorate. After the 9/11 attacks, the NSA increased surveillance, including inside the United States, where it had previously faced strict restrictions.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Why exactly hasn't Congress told the NSA to stop shit like this?

I thought that the NSA/CIA etc weren't allowed to work on US territory anyway.

Remember the PATRIOT Act? Why exactly do you think Congress actually cares about this shit before it becomes bad PR? They've only started to sound sincere in their outrage once they found out they were getting spied on, too.

Further question: Do you think the NSA would actually stop if Congress told them to?

[Eternal_Freedom]

What would happen if they didn't stop when told to?

[Gaidin]

Further question: Do you think the NSA would actually stop if Congress told them to?

Since when can Congress tell them to do anything?

[Jaepheth]

Further question: Do you think the NSA would actually stop if Congress told them to?

Since when can Congress tell them to do anything?

I would presume they can defund the shit out of the NSA if they don't comply with Congress' orders.

[Gaidin]

I would presume they can defund the shit out of the NSA if they don't comply with Congress' orders.

That's a different matter altogether and more a thing of legal blackmail. Assuming Congress can coordinate themselves well enough to pass a veto proof bill in the first place these days.

[Sea Skimmer]

Gee anyone remember when Al Gore and some congressmen tried to make this sort of thing federal law back in the 1990s? As in the only encryption that would be legal in the US would be stuff with a government backdoor? Once that got blocked the NSA moved to just trying to get people to willingly if unknowningly adapt compromised standards, but in this case it was kind of blatant anyway, these backdoors were known about years ago, the only thing new is more proof the NSA was directly involved instead of just being a blatant assumption.

Congress doesn't give a shit. They have no reason to give a shit if as mentioned people are already willing to swallow down the Patriot act.

[Gandalf]

Why exactly hasn't Congress told the NSA to stop shit like this?

Inadequate awareness and volume of current displays of outrage among the people, mostly. We'll see what happens if more shit like this comes to light close enough to November.

If previous infodumps of this didn't stir enough reaction, I don't imagine that a lot will.

It's like the environment. If surveyed, many people will say that they like the idea of public transport and such, but they'll still take the car the next day because it's easier.

[Elheru Aran]

People don't care about the NSA because they're so desensitized to all the highly visible shit happening in the government. When things like the government shutdown are occupying front pages, things like some politician or other throwing a snit about the other party's agenda, etc, people don't really care what a (seemingly) minor department of the government is doing behind the scenes. As long as normal, everyday government stuff functions just fine, they don't give a shit. As long as they can't see it, they don't give a shit.

What it will take is someone prominent taking the whole NSA affair, spelling it out in small words and rubbing it in the face of the American people. Until that happens, they're not going to care. They probably still won't care much, either.

[Tribble]

Wow, an intelligence agency is breaking the law to get the info it wants? What a surprise! If we honestly believe that our governments obey their laws when it's in their best interests not to we are seriously deluding ourselves. Yes our governments breaks the law. And Yes, they will carry on doing it no matter what we say or do (while perhaps offering up the occasional scapegoat to appease the masses). Would that ever change, even if there were some "official" legislation banning such practices? Even if we got rid of every single one of them, would the new government/agency act any differently? I doubt it.

[Sea Skimmer]

I see nothing in this that indicates the NSA broke any law in the first place. This is a matter of an open encryption standard having had a back door written into it, those standards are not generally regulated by law. They are created by computer industry bodies and people can choose to adapt them or not. They exist so people can write compatible software without having to talk to each other constantly, nothing more.

Now when the NSA went to exploit the loophole, then they may or may not have broken various wiretapping and other laws in the process of doing so, but simply creating the loophole in and of itself should not be a crime. And if it were a crime, the implications of that are fairly vast for the computer industry should they ever come out with defective products. Cue its a feature not a bug jokes.

[Grumman]

Now when the NSA went to exploit the loophole, then they may or may not have broken various wiretapping and other laws in the process of doing so, but simply creating the loophole in and of itself should not be a crime. And if it were a crime, the implications of that are fairly vast for the computer industry should they ever come out with defective products. Cue its a feature not a bug jokes.

This is not a defect, it is deliberate sabotage of security systems so that a known felon (the head of the NSA) can bypass them.

[Sea Skimmer]

Ah yes, guilty without a trial! That's the spirit free citizen, the NSA has approved this message!

[Terralthra]

Ah yes, guilty without a trial! That's the spirit free citizen, the NSA has approved this message!

The dude lied to Congress, under oath. There are recordings and everything, including recordings of him admitting this. He has, practically speaking, confessed to committing perjury. Presidents have been impeached for that.

[Irbis]

Another piece of internet infrastructure crucial for trust in e-commerce compromised for petty advantage? Who could have guessed?

But hey, if only NSA could prove they used it to intercept Putin's e-mails you will find a lot of people claiming it was all good in the end, man.

[Simon_Jester]

Ah yes, guilty without a trial! That's the spirit free citizen, the NSA has approved this message!

The dude lied to Congress, under oath. There are recordings and everything, including recordings of him admitting this. He has, practically speaking, confessed to committing perjury. Presidents have been impeached for that.

I've always figured that as private citizens, if we think we have good reason to think someone committed a crime we can reasonably accuse them of having committed it. The mere fact that they are accused should not sway our judgment. But if the evidence is damning, I'm under no obligation to trust someone just because it looks like bureaucratic privilege will stop him from ever coming to trial.

[K. A. Pital]

Another piece of internet infrastructure crucial for trust in e-commerce compromised for petty advantage? Who could have guessed?

But hey, if only NSA could prove they used it to intercept Putin's e-mails you will find a lot of people claiming it was all good in the end, man.

Putin's emails? Putin is way smarter than this. Maybe some of the decade-old ones, but not the ones from last year or this year.

[Zaune]

The dude lied to Congress, under oath. There are recordings and everything, including recordings of him admitting this. He has, practically speaking, confessed to committing perjury. Presidents have been impeached for that.

There's also the withholding of documents from the oversight committee, which is almost certainly violating a federal law somewhere. And I wouldn't be surprised if there was worse going on.

[Irbis]

Putin's emails? Putin is way smarter than this. Maybe some of the decade-old ones, but not the ones from last year or this year.

That was sarcasm. I have seen enough inane proposals how to show Putin from local politicians (including buying carrier from USA to blockade Russia) recently to realize some people will say it was all justified if NSA claims compromised ciphers led to Putin's dog peeing on presidential carpet.