Hacker10

Kali NetHunter, mobile device distribution for hacking

Kali NetHunter is an open source mobile distribution for Nexus mobile devices developed by a well known IT penetration testing company called Offensive Security, the same developers of Debian based Kali Linux for desktop computers. Kali NetHunter turns your Nexus mobile phone or tablet into a pocket penetration testing suite able launch attacks on wireless networks and unattended computers.

One of the attacks demonstrated in video by the distribution developers it is called HID keyboard and it shows how a mobile phone running Kali NetHunter plugged into a computer USB port can automatically type in pre-programmed commands without touching the PC physical keyboard. With this technique, that also works with the lockscreen switched on, it would be possible to install a trojan horse or copying hard drive content in the target computer.

Kali NetHunter hacking for Nexus mobile

Another poweful attack is using Kali NetHunter dnsmasq to provide DNS and DHCP services to a small network, this allows for all kind of middle man attacks. From displaying a fake phishing page that captures credentials every time somebody requests the URL for Paypal or Facebook, up to blocking Internet access to the whole network blocking DNS look ups. Other possible attacks are sniffing, spoofing, vulnerability scan, gathering information on a target computer, breaking into a wireless network and dozens more, all of the Kali Linux tools are included in NetHunter.

After installing Kali NetHunter in your mobile device it is easy to launch any of the included penetration tests, you don’t have to use the command line if you don’t want to, many exploits can be launched with a webpanel and a VPN can be set up to cover your tracks, securing your connection from packet sniffers on the network.

At the moment Kali NetHunter is only available for Google Nexus mobile phones and tablets, Nexus comes rooted with an unlocked bootloader, this makes it simple for end users to modify factory Android operating system settings. Other Android builds could become available in the future, NetHunter is open to community contributions.

There has been reports of various antivirus software flagging Kali NetHunter official download as a virus, make sure to get it from the official site and compare the supplied file hashes so that you know it has not been tampered with, you should also change the default “toor” password to something else.

Visit Kali NetHunter homepage

26 September, 2014
A look at the evidence alleging that Giganews is an FBI operation

As recently reported by Cryptome, a Giganews ex-employee has leaked to them what he claims is evidence that Usenet provider Giganews, with subsidiaries PowerUsenet, Usenet.net, RhinoNewsgroups and VPN company VyprVPN are logging customers downloads and work for the FBI. I downloaded all of the evidence Nick Caputo presented and I researched it to find out how substantive his accusations are. Assume nothing, believe nothing, allow the evidence to speak by itself.

Nick Caputo first claim is that he used to work as a system administrator for Giganews, to prove this he sent Cryptome photos of his employee badge and payslips, both look authentic and a recent post in Giganews blog admits that he is indeed an ex-employee. Based on this, it is out of question that Nick Caputo is a former Giganews system administrator, nobody disputes that.

The second claim Nick Caputo makes is that due to a misunderstanding with GigaNews CEO, Ron Yokubaitis, he removed three groups carrying child pornography from Giganews list and that he was subsequently disciplined by Giganews/Data Foundry administrators for doing that, with subtle references to an FBI investigation in progress, the child porn groups were later on restored by one of the administrators from Data Foundry back ups. There is no hard evidence supporting any of the facts, you have to take Nick Caputo’s word at face value.

FBI agent Scott Kibbey and Charles Riley

The ex-employee, claiming to be upset over what he believed was Giganews facilitating child porn downloads, decided to contact the FBI a few months later. Special Agent Scott Kibbey and FBI agent Charles Riley had a meeting with him in unlisted FBI Austin offices located at 12515 Research Blvd, Building 7, Suite 400, during that meeting Nick Caputo was told that the agents were friends with Giganews CEO and they would give him his old job back under a new identity, Nick Caputo also claims that both FBI agents worked at Giganews data center undercover and as evidence of all this he attachs various text files with email headers of the email exchange he had with them as well as a scanned copy of both FBI agents contact card.

I did a whois on the computer IP that shows in the email headers and the IP 153.31.119.142 is listed as being part of the “FBI Criminal Justice Information Systems”, I also searched in DuckDuckGo for “Charles Riley FBI” and a LinkedIn page comes up listing him as a Detective for the City of Austin working in the Digital Forensics Unit. Based on this, I believe that Chris Caputo had a real meeting with these two FBI agents but what was said in that meeting is another matter that can not be proven. Something that does not make sense is that the FBI would offer Nick Caputo his job back in Giganews under a new identity, surely, his co-workers would know his face even when using a different name.

Another bizarre claim of Nick Caputo, with no supporting evidence, is that the Chinese government has access to VyprVPN Hong Kong server and it was brought down by a Chinese employee the day of Tiananmen Square anniversary. All I can say, is that he gives zero proof of this claim and it is weird.

There is an equally weird Giganews blog post saying that the company doesn’t work for the FBI and they pretend to prove it by saying that Giganews has SSL for Usenet downloads and a VPN. That means nothing, owning the servers they can see what goes on, and Giganews forgets to mention something very important of which there is ample evidence. Giganews is the only Usenet provider that is a member of the Internet Watch Foundation, for those who don’t know, the IWF is a British organisation that works for the police trying to remove child pornography from the Internet and tells Internet Service Providers what pages to block.

I don’t believe it has been proven that Giganews is an FBI honeypot, the evidence given by Nick Caputo shows that he used to work for Giganews and that he had a meeting with FBI agents to discuss something, but beyond that, it is impossible to know what was spoken or said at the workplace and in the meeting with the FBI agents, and both parts, Giganews and Nick Caputo, have a personal interest in descrediting each other.

I am a Usenet downloader myself and I don’t use Giganews, they are clearly overpriced and after the Snowden leaks I try to reduce my reliance of USA based companies. If anybody cares to know, I am currently using Tweaknews.eu in the Netherlands, and Altopia in the USA, one is offshore, and the other one is too small to be of interest for a global gagging order, and they both have their own hardware, don’t censor groups, and are not resellers.

Read more in Cryptome

21 September, 2014
Mobile phone private messaging with Schmoose App

Schmoose is a privacy messaging app for your mobile phone with end to end encryption, the ciphers used to secure your data are well known standards like AES256-bit, SHA-256 and RSA-2048-bits. Schmoose itself is not able to read what you send, a public/private encryption key is created in your phone during installation and data is encrypted before it leaves it, only the person you are sending the message to can decrypt it.

When the sender and receiver both have the app installed they can chat like they would do in the popular WhatsApp and Kik without any messaging costs,the main difference is the strong privacy added to Schmoose. If anybody intercepted your messages, they would only be able to see meaningless random characters and the company can not be forced to decrypt them as they do not have the means to do that.

You will be asked to verify your mobile phone number or email during installation and after that you are able to sync your contacts online, to keep contacts private, only hash values are sent to Schmoose servers in Germany, they don’t see names and addresses.

Schmoose encrypted messaging app

The messaging program is very colourful, it can include embedded photos, custom backrgounds, avatars and fun chat features like in other chat messaging apps. If you choose to store the photos people send you in Schmoose make sure that it will not be something embarrassing, media storage is not encrypted and if you lose your phone there is potential for somebody to access the photo gallery.

I did not like having to register to be able to use the app but it is possible to select email registration only, if you have an anonymous email account this should keep your identity hidden and it will not be as intrusive as using your mobile phone number linked to your real identity. I suspect that registration is necessary to assign you a Schmoose ID and to be found in the network.

The good features are end to end public key encryption with no backdoor and easy of use. The bad part was that data was not being encrypted locally, to fix this your phone should be fully encrypted. Schmoose is a free app for a single device, a paid version increases the number of mobile phones in which it can run and lets you block other users and send videos (the free version only sends photos).

I am glad to see more and more companies locking themselves out of customer’s encryption keys, this allows them to fight back against unreasonable legal requests asking for access to customer’s personal messages. The hard part, is that there is no interoperability in between similar privacy messaging apps and it is next to impossible to agree with all of your contacts to use the same app.

Visit Schmoose homepage

19 September, 2014
Encrypted radio frequency communications with goTenna

Designed to be able to communicate without any Internet service provider, WiFi or mobile phone network, goTenna is a small autonomous hardware device that fits in your pocket and can be plugged into an iOS or Android smartphone to transmit low frequency 151-154 MHz radio waves to other goTenna users, pairing with them via Bluetooth LE (Low Energy). The device can not be used to make voice calls, but you can send text messages and share your location.

Possible utilities for goTenna are communications in disaster zones with destroyed infrastructure, sending an emergency message if you are lost in the middle of a mountain that has no mobile network coverage, and, private communications. This device should get around Internet mass surveillance frameworks set up to monitor Internet and mobile phone networks, unless an operative is within goTenna radiowave range with bulky wiretapping equipment, they better forget about intercepting or detecting goTenna data transmissions, not to mention that you do not have to pay for a subscription to use it.

goTenna radio frequency communications

With the device you get a custom goTenna app preloaded with offline maps to see your friend’s location without needing Google maps or an Internet connection, however, if you don’t remove the mobile phone SIM card, your GPS coordinates and that of your associates will be revealed to the network provider even when you are not placing a call.

Radio frequencies can be easily intercepted, to stop this goTenna secures your messages with 224-bit elliptic curve end to end encryption. There is no central server, messages are stored inside goTenna’s internal flash memory, it can hold 1000 messages. You communicate P2P with your friends, in group or individually, and it is possible to send self destructing messages to only one person, the message will be erased straight away after it has been read and not stored in the memory.

Communications range is an awesome 1 to 50 miles, depending on obstacles and geography, according to one of the founders, Daniela Perdomo, the maximum 50 miles range is only achievable if you are on top of a mountain, on the ground in an open space you get around 9 miles communications range and in the city, without line of sight and many obstacles around, you should get from 0.5 up to 1 mile range. Data transmission at 9600 bps is too slow for sending rich media like selfies, but enough for text messages.

Due to radio frequency regulations goTenna is not allowed to daisy chain a network in mesh, communications are point to point, but you can send a “shout” to all goTenna users in your vicinity or set up a private group chat.

goTenna mobile app

Other similar self-ruling communication schemes that don’t need of a provider are existing mobile phone apps that communicate with other users P2P but their range is very low, bounded by Bluetooth, a couple of dozen meters. And of course you have the walkie talkie, it doesn’t need of an Internet service provider or satellite to operate but it does not encrypt radio waves like goTenna, unless it is a very high end device of the kind used by law enforcement and emergency services.

goTenna battery lasts up to 72 hours with low usage, the enclosure is weather and dust proof for you to take hiking inside your pocket or clipped to a rucksack band. I liked the small size, relatively long battery, it works autonomously without any state or corporation oversight of the data being transmitted, and the radio waves are encrypted with strong algorithms, the price is not so attractive. This device can work anywhere in the world, legally it needs a transmission license and right now it is only available in the US where they have FCC approval.

Visit goTenna homepage

17 September, 2014
Mobile phone end to end encrypted chat with Sicher

Sicher is a free Android, iPhone ($1) and Windows Mobile messaging up with end to end encryption and message self-destruction. It can be used to securely chat and exchange files in group or individually with anybody in your contact list. As usual in alike apps, Sicher will not work unless your friends also have it installed.

The company developing Sicher is based in Germany and they can’t gain access to your private encryption key, generation takes place in your mobile phone and never leaves it, in addition all Sicher servers are located in Germany and they do not store the data you send, after an encrypted message has been delivered it is automatically erased from the server.

To strengthen your security a self-destruction timer can be set with all messages or files you send, the lifetime of a message can be fixed from 30 minutes to up to 15 days. During the app set up you will be asked to enter a password used to encrypt data locally, this will block access to your account if your phone is lost or stolen, the company has no way to restore forgotten passwords, content will be lost if you forget about it. The app can be set to lock itself up after 15 minutes of inactivity, hourly or the more risky option of never asking for the password again while the phone is on, customize it to your security needs.

Sicher encrypted chat messaging app

I liked that Sicher has not been developed nor has servers in the USA, where the government is known for issuing gagging orders to technology companies forcing them to install a backdoor in their communication services. Sicher developers should also get bonus points for not sending crash logs, spy agencies are known to collect Windows logs sent over the Internet to learn more about a target’s computer, no such privacy risk here, and there is no social network integration, Facebook and Twitter apps don’t have access to Sicher, two companies that all privacy apps should block. Another nice feature is the settings allowing you to route Sicher communications through a proxy to hide your mobile phone IP.

Besides the appalling app installation experience where I had to try multiple times before receiving the necessary SMS with a PIN code to activate the app, and besides Sicher’s freezing my screen when I finally entered the PIN number, forcing me to uninstall the app and reinstall again, security specs look fantastic.

I would be willing to use this app if they did not enforce mobile phone number registration with them prior use, the requirement strips away your anonymity and I don’t understand why this is necessary. Even if the company can’t see the encrypted data being sent, Sicher servers, and anybody wiretapping them, should be able to see computer IPs connection length with timestamp and amount of data being transferred, what it is known as metadata, a very useful source of information for spy agencies.

I trust that the developers will solve Sicher SMS registration problems, but as long as they insist that my mobile phone number must be registered with them, I will not use the app. If you don’t care about anonymity and all you long for is privacy, Sicher security far surpasses that of WhatsApp or Kik and it is preferable than those apps.

Visit Sicher homepage

11 September, 2014
Anonymous torrent downloads with Tribler

Tribler is an open source bitTorrent client developed by the Delft University of Technology, TU Delft, in the Netherlands. What makes this program different from the other dozen file sharing clients is that it includes a unique built-in peer proxy bouncing technology routing data across multiple peers before reaching its final destination. Just like in Tor, three different random nodes are used to stop a rogue node operator from finding out who is downloading a file.

The first peer proxy encrypts data to block other nodes from seeing the content of what it is being forwarded, only the person requesting that file is able to decrypt it. The peer proxies don’t keep logs of anything, seizing them will be of no help to determine past usage.

Another Tribler anti-censorship feature is that you don’t have to visit torrent sites to find files, the software is currently using central trackers and indexers but if they are ever taken down, Tribler can search the network to find user submitted .torrent files that don’t have to be uploaded to sites like The Pirate Bay or Demonoid.

Tribler torrent channels

Besides security, Tribler has dozens of attributes to help you manage torrent files. You can locate torrents using Tribler integrated search box or in what they call “Channels“, a collection of user generated files that can contain movies, ebooks, photos, games or music, anybody can create them. I was able to find new movie releases and TV series in no time and without any spam. The program crowd sources filtering, channels have a “Spam” button next to them, when enough people are annoyed and click on the button, the channel gets buried, meanwhile good quality content can be boosted in search results clicking on a “Favorite” button next to the channel.

You can give a descriptive name to Tribler channels you create, sadly many people are not bothered with this or don’t know how to do it and I found channels named “Grandma PC” or “ElderScrolls“. To know if the content is worthwhile watch out for the star rating next to each channel, it lets you know how popular it is, saving you time by not having to click on each folder to see what is inside.

Important things to be aware of: When you first start Tribler you will not see any channel, it took me ten minutes for the first 30 user generated channels with content to show up, this increased to 50 channels in another ten minutes, the longer you stay on the network, the more content will appear. Another thing is that the software will automatically create a folder with your Windows username on your desktop to store downloads, make sure that your Windows username is not your real name or change the folder name in settings.

Tribler channel creation

If you are browsing the Internet at the same time as you download a torrent in the background, right click on the torrent and change the default unlimited bandwidth allocation to avoid slowing down your browsing, and before downloading a big movie, it is best to stream part of it with Trible integrated VLC media player. Tribler also allows you to copy the magnet link, see the number of seeders, list the trackers announcing the torrent and it has a family filter that will not stop you from seeing porn thumbnails in Tribler main window. I read in Tribler forums about other users having the same porn problem, the developers seem to be aware of this and are working to fix it.

Regarding anonymous downloading, be extremely careful, the technology is in testing mode, not all downloads are anonymous. You can see a column next to the torrent file where it says “Anonymous yes/no“. My main concern is that I don’t know how willing are going to be the authorities to arrest somebody forwarding encrypted data in Tribler that happens to contain something illegal.

Tribler proxy bouncing is too new to know for sure if it can stop abusive DMCA notices from landing at the door of those forwarding traffic, but anything that makes it more difficult to find a downloader’s computer IP should be welcome.

Visit Tribler homepage

7 September, 2014
Free encrypted webmail service Tutanota

Tutanota, meaning secure message in Latin, is a German based free webmail service with end to end encryption. Your email messages, attachments and subject are all encrypted in your browser using Javascript with a cipher combination of RSA 2048-bit and AES-128-bit before uploading data to Tutanota mail servers in Germany. The encryption keys remain in your power at all times, the company can’t see anything in plain text, they can’t restore your password or reset your account, anybody forgetting their password loses access to the messages.

If German authorities ever serve Tutanota with a court order to hand over a customer’s email inbox content, the company will of course comply with the warrant but all they will be able to deliver will be ciphered files with no decryption key. According to the email exchange I had with Matthias Pfau, one of Tutanota founders, they do not log IP addresses and only keep timestamps, the details are stored anonymously without any reference to your user account. Each mail in your inbox also contains the mail addresses of the recipients in clear text, kept until you delete the email, Tutanota has some ideas about how to hide the recipients address but it has not been implemented yet.

Encryped webmail Tutanota

You can open a Tutanota email account with minimal details, choose a username and password and that is it. During the very short registration you will find a link to a Wikipedia page with instructions on how to choose a strong password, a coloured meter on the page lets you know if your password is secure enough to withstand brute force attacks.

I appreciated the clean smooth webmail interface giving one click access to the different tabs and folders, with a security tab where you can see a list of of the successful and failed account logins with timestamps, no computer IPs are associated with customer accounts since no IP logs are kept.

Sending an encrypted email in Tutanota is effortless, it does not require customers to manage encryption keys or know much about security. The system is compatible with insecure email services like Gmail or Yahoo. When you send a secure email to somebody who is not on Tutanota, instead of receiving the full text, they receive a message with a link inviting that person to visit Tutanota servers to read the encrypted email, only readable with the correct password and decrypted locally in the browser.

By not sending the email message body, any organisation monitoring Internet traffic will not be able to intercept a copy of the encrypted data. A terrific way to stop mass surveillance on the Internet is to never let the data out on the wild web. The same security system that CIA director General Petraeus was using to communicate for an extramarital affair, he used a dead drop email account and never allowed messages to travel the Internet.

One can assume that the CIA director has classified knowledge to know how to best avoid surveillance, and presumably General Petraeus applied that privileged information to protect his own life, it is possible to learn a lot from observing the experts and copycat them.

Tutanota encrypted email exchange

Tutanota free email service is a major improvement over the dead letter box communication system, the company adds an encryption layer, and the people you communicate with do not have to change anything, they can securely reply to you using the same window where they are reading the received message.

Another important security fact about Tutanota is that they hired a German penetration testing company called SySS to try to find security vulnerabilities in their mail service, like cross site scripting. Tutanota was given an all clear certificate attesting that during the network scan and manual hacking that was attempted by security experts it was not possible for SySS to access any confidential data. If that is not reassuring enough, Tutanota source code is available for download released under the GPL license, you can use it to build your own email client or check it for bugs.

The zero knowledge approach of this email service, their no logs no decryption keys available policy, located outside of the UK and USA, very easy registration and utilization make Tutanota one of the best alternatives to Hushmail. If I have to complain about anything, is that, not being German myself, I do not like getting a .de email address (@tutanota.de), I prefer a .com domain to stop people from assuming I am German.

This security model is the future, spy agencies are not going to stop monitoring data travelling across the Internet, so, you just don’t send it, leave it on the server for others to fetch, superb.

Visit Tutanota homepage

5 September, 2014