Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed Part I

Today, Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named “Vault 7” by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency. — Wikileaks

This is going to be a series of posts where I would try to describe/elaborate various spying methods employed by the CIA

This part is going to mostly about Smart TVs

Specifically Samsung’s Smart TVs are being targeted by CIA’s Weeping Angel, Now Weeping Angel is the hack which has been been developed by CIA along with UK’s MI5/BTSS

So if you are think how does it work ?

Weeping Angel works in following ways

1. Smart TV is infested by injecting USB Drive
2. This places TV in codename “Fake-Off” Mode

During this mode TV behaves as if it were off, Front LEDs turn off, Screen turned off, But it’s an illusion. During fake off mode TV’s microphone is active and record every conversation in the room and saves it the TV Storage. Now CIA can extract all the audio files by connecting to the TV via Wifi, So once TV is connected to CIA’s Wifi, It transfers all the audio files

Here’s how it went down :

1. Cable Operator (CIA Agent) infests your TV with Weeping Angel
2. TV Starts recording your conversations
3. CIA Agent comes near your house, Connects to TV via Wifi
4. Extracts all the audio files

How to detect your TV is infested ?

According to https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/page_12353643.html

Limitation of Weeping Angel include :

1. Blue LED on back remains powered when in Fake-Off mode
2. Updating firmware over internet may remove implant (not tested) or portions of the implant

So, After turning off your TV, The LED at the back is still active, You might be being bugged, Updating the firmware is highly recommended

What no to do with your Smart TV ?

1. Never inject unknown USB drive nor allow anyone to do so
2. Disconnect power after turning off the TV with remote
3. Keep your Firmware updated
4. Never ignore unusual behavior

Next part in the series will include how CIA hacked Android and iOS rendering encrypted chat apps like Signal, Wire etc useless