6 ms·

FBI Smartphone Surveillance Tool Details Revealed in Court

112 points by choult 14y ago

ck2 14y ago
I guess if they have a specific warrant with oversight for using it, I don't have a problem with this. Now if the agent with the hardware can decide to use it on their girlfriend or brother-in-law or something like that without anyone else knowing, well we've got a big problem. And apparently, we've got a big problem: Rigmaiden and the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have argued that the government did not obtain a legitimate warrant to conduct the intrusive surveillance through the stingray. They say it’s indicative of how the government has used stingrays in other cases without proper disclosure to judges about how they work, and have asked the court to suppress evidence gathered through the use of the device.
svag 14y ago
All the pages http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/verizon-rigmaiden-aircard/all/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/verizon-rigmaiden-a...
UnoriginalGuy 14y ago
That was actually one of the most interesting articles I've read today. I'm fairly familiar with the technology discussed but the specifics of how far it has come in practical use is quite interesting. Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjYAAmHvt-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjYAAmHvt-g
belorn 14y ago
> the wireless provider reached out remotely to reprogram an air card It's almost like people don't their own bought property after sale. The person who thought he owned the device after buying it basically got fooled - it was only rented for an unlimited time. Going from there to an warrant-less tracking is easy. If Verizon permit the reprogramming and tracking of "their" device, then its legally allowed. They might need to add something to the 35 pages EULA, in case some states dislike warrant-less tracking of the person using the device, but it can be phrased as "improving the experience".
- nateabele 14y ago
  I had one of these a number of years ago, and it wouldn't surprise me if something like this was in Verizon's terms of service (I remember giving the device back after canceling the contract). However, going from there to accepting the hardware as a personal surveillance device is something else entirely.
joshuahedlund 14y ago
There are certainly grave concerns about oversight, abuse, privacy, etc, here. However, I find it interesting that the FBI had to have the card reprogrammed to conduct their surveillance. Similar to Google and others revealing government requests for data, these incidents imply that the government at least doesn't quite have complete unfettered access to all of our online communications, as I often hear some claiming (NSA super data center!!). Not that it's still not prudent to assume otherwise and work towards greater privacy and all that. But sometimes I find it a useful perspective to keep in mind even as we seem to slide further toward such a state.
- nateabele 14y ago
  I wouldn't be that optimistic. The FBI investigates and prosecutes crime, which makes it a much more public organization than the NSA. Even assuming the agencies talk to one another, and for all the FBI's law-bending, they still have to present their evidence in court, and 'your honor, we got this off an NSA dragnet' isn't gonna cut it. Heh, well, give it a few more years.
- SoftwareMaven 14y ago
  They don't need complete unfettered access themselves. As this case shows, corporations are all to eager to give them anything they want. Why spend time building it themselves when others give it for free, just by getting "Bob"[1] down the hall to sign a piece of paper. 1. The magistrates and the police work very closely together. By nature of the relationship alone, they are likely to be inclusive of requests. When information about what is being done, as is alleged in this case, it effectively opens the police to access to anything.
- csmatt 14y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillan...
- lawnchair_larry 14y ago
  The NSA has nothing to do with the FBI.
trotsky 14y ago
It seems like it would be faster to make a list of things verizon won't accept an administrative subpoena for in lieu of a warrant as opposed to the other way around. On an unrelated note, if you have verizon FIOS they can push a new firmware package to your router and reboot it easily, without you ever knowing. And they log in every day and confirm the hash of the firmware you're running - if it's not on the approved list (which is generally just the current one they have you set for) it automatically reflashes. A properly written firmware could monitor not just all traffic that was internet bound, but also everything on the local lan and wireless net. At least in the router I have, there is a significant amount of dark radios on the board. There's a second (unused) 802.11n radio that in other editions is used as a second n stream but easily could be used to do full site surveys or packet capture or as an evil twin, a DECT (cordless phone) compatible phy that could impersonate a cordless basestation and if I read the spec sheet right a bluetooth and powerline phy. The verizon STB for their converged QAM/IPTV also downloads a portion of their firmware from the management servers and verifies hashes and oprational state TCG style - if they aren't connected to the network they will never actually finish booting. Details are limited about what the CISCO built STB contains on the inside, but it at least has a light sensor (ir remote) and a vibration / accelerometer (for sudden drop hd head park) that they have been touting as a feature that allows them to measure ad exposure based on floor vibrations that suggest you walked away during a commercial. They've also been recently touting a 99% effectiveness rate at uniquely identifying the viewer in multi person households based on statistical modeling of the order and speed buttons are pressed on the remote, though I'm unsure if that's with the current cisco gear or the new motorola (google) gear that they are just rolling out.
- chiph 14y ago
  touting as a feature that allows them to measure ad exposure based on floor vibrations that suggest you walked away during a commercial. Ok, now that's creepy. Time to get a Jack Russell Terrier & a tennis ball.
  - trotsky 14y ago
    I'm pretty sure the generations in development have video cameras and microphones (to allow you to cough wave your hands or speak to change channels, of course). That same platform also has ISM radios in monitoring mode so that they can see what devices are present and obtain rough positioning data. So they'll know when you get home based on your phone mac appearing, and how many people are on the couch and who they are. here is the video recognition stb patent application that includes a number of eye openers: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20130042270.pdf http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20130042270.pdf
cheez 14y ago
Well, as long as they have a warrant. Oh... "The government has long asserted that it doesn’t need to obtain a probable-cause warrant to use the devices because they don’t collect the content of phone calls and text messages and operate like pen-registers and trap-and-traces, collecting the equivalent of header information." Fuck you.
- bediger4000 14y ago
  Indeed. Personally, I've always wondered how pen-registers could be legally used without the permission of the registered. It just seems like snooping. Yes, I realize Courts Have Decided, and The Legal Issues Are All Tidily Wrapped Up, but really, how un-American is a pen-register? On a related note, do US federal law enforcement agencies suffer a significant personnel turnover because people finally have pangs of conscience over what they're required to do?
  - kefka 14y ago
    With a 99% conviction rate in federal court.... "They only find the bad people. What's there to be ashamed of that?"
DannyBee 14y ago
Oversight? Y'all know the FBI has no direct oversight from Congress, right? That the oversight happens (theoretically) through the promulgation and enforcement of guidelines from the attorney general? There are public ones: http://www.justice.gov/ag/readingroom/guidelines.pdf http://www.justice.gov/ag/readingroom/guidelines.pdf and there are also secret ones that are not published. Occasionally the FBI goes to congress out of the goodness of their heart and gives them an update, to avoid congress getting uppity. The last 3-4 times this has happened, it's usually been to say "whoops, we've been completely and totally violating our internal guidelines"
- RexRollman 14y ago
  When it comes to protecting the people they represent from unconstitional monitoring, Congress has failed epically. I suspect that it is because the people and groups who care about this subject don't line their pockets.
16s 14y ago
Cellphones are tracking devices. Plain and simple. The fact that the trackees/victims are paying 70 to 100 bucks each month to build and support the tracking infrastructure is the amazing part.
- sukuriant 14y ago
  Ever tried working in BigCo since they've been a part of the world for any extended period of time? I only know one person that successfully lived without a cell phone in the modern world for a while.
  - grecy 14y ago
    I'm a Software Engineer in a company with 500 employees, and I have not had a cell phone for > 7 yeas. Granted, I live in a town of only 40k people, though I previously lived in a city of 1.5Mil, and before that 3Mil, both without a cell. It's extremely liberating.
  - Pwnguinz 14y ago
    I live in the South Bay. I do not have a cell phone. I'm a full stack engineer at a startup that's raised series A--not some grumpy "Get off of my lawn!" grandpa. What urgency is there to need a cellphone for, in most routine days? Sure, it would suck if something horrible happened to a member of my family and I couldn't be contacted until I got home, oh maybe 4 hours later. Short of some such edge case scenarios, "it can wait".
    - lurkinggrue 14y ago
      My car broke down earlier today and I had to call AAA. Glad I didn't have to get out of my car to contact somebody. This would have been a routine day if I hadn't broke down. Bet you don't own a TV either.
      - 16s 14y ago
        Carry a 2M HT and hit the local repeater when you break down. Give them your position and they'll call a tow truck for you.
runjake 14y ago
An aside, tower information is/was available via the Android frameworks. When I was on Android, I wrote a little widget that displayed the tower ID and other information of the tower I was currently connected to. In short order, I had the few tower IDs that I used as I roamed around the metro memorized. After reading the article, which was great and had many details, I think this would be a viable strategy for activists worried about governmental abuse, harassment, and surveillance. Spoofing tower IDs would probably present some operational issues amongst customers. Of course, I wouldn't rely on this if my life or freedom depended on it -- and I'd certainly use a community-based ROM, such as Cyanogenmod. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/cdma/package-summary.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/cdm... http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/cdma/CdmaCellLocation.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/cdm... http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/gsm/package-summary.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/gsm...
futhey 14y ago
Even in an active DF system you don't need to flash the phone's programming (not exactly firmware, more like settings, the short list of instructions the phone regularly receives from cellular networks that `hack` it to work within it's operating environment)

112 points by choult 14y ago

ck2 14y ago

I guess if they have a specific warrant with oversight for using it, I don't have a problem with this. Now if the agent with the hardware can decide to use it on their girlfriend or brother-in-law or something like that without anyone else knowing, well we've got a big problem. And apparently, we've got a big problem: Rigmaiden and the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have argued that the government did not obtain a legitimate warrant to conduct the intrusive surveillance through the stingray. They say it’s indicative of how the government has used stingrays in other cases without proper disclosure to judges about how they work, and have asked the court to suppress evidence gathered through the use of the device.

svag 14y ago

All the pages http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/verizon-rigmaiden-aircard/all/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/verizon-rigmaiden-a...

UnoriginalGuy 14y ago

That was actually one of the most interesting articles I've read today. I'm fairly familiar with the technology discussed but the specifics of how far it has come in practical use is quite interesting. Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjYAAmHvt-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjYAAmHvt-g

belorn 14y ago

> the wireless provider reached out remotely to reprogram an air card It's almost like people don't their own bought property after sale. The person who thought he owned the device after buying it basically got fooled - it was only rented for an unlimited time. Going from there to an warrant-less tracking is easy. If Verizon permit the reprogramming and tracking of "their" device, then its legally allowed. They might need to add something to the 35 pages EULA, in case some states dislike warrant-less tracking of the person using the device, but it can be phrased as "improving the experience".

nateabele 14y ago
I had one of these a number of years ago, and it wouldn't surprise me if something like this was in Verizon's terms of service (I remember giving the device back after canceling the contract). However, going from there to accepting the hardware as a personal surveillance device is something else entirely.

joshuahedlund 14y ago

There are certainly grave concerns about oversight, abuse, privacy, etc, here. However, I find it interesting that the FBI had to have the card reprogrammed to conduct their surveillance. Similar to Google and others revealing government requests for data, these incidents imply that the government at least doesn't quite have complete unfettered access to all of our online communications, as I often hear some claiming (NSA super data center!!). Not that it's still not prudent to assume otherwise and work towards greater privacy and all that. But sometimes I find it a useful perspective to keep in mind even as we seem to slide further toward such a state.

nateabele 14y ago
I wouldn't be that optimistic. The FBI investigates and prosecutes crime, which makes it a much more public organization than the NSA. Even assuming the agencies talk to one another, and for all the FBI's law-bending, they still have to present their evidence in court, and 'your honor, we got this off an NSA dragnet' isn't gonna cut it. Heh, well, give it a few more years.
SoftwareMaven 14y ago
They don't need complete unfettered access themselves. As this case shows, corporations are all to eager to give them anything they want. Why spend time building it themselves when others give it for free, just by getting "Bob"[1] down the hall to sign a piece of paper. 1. The magistrates and the police work very closely together. By nature of the relationship alone, they are likely to be inclusive of requests. When information about what is being done, as is alleged in this case, it effectively opens the police to access to anything.
csmatt 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillan...
lawnchair_larry 14y ago
The NSA has nothing to do with the FBI.

trotsky 14y ago

It seems like it would be faster to make a list of things verizon won't accept an administrative subpoena for in lieu of a warrant as opposed to the other way around. On an unrelated note, if you have verizon FIOS they can push a new firmware package to your router and reboot it easily, without you ever knowing. And they log in every day and confirm the hash of the firmware you're running - if it's not on the approved list (which is generally just the current one they have you set for) it automatically reflashes. A properly written firmware could monitor not just all traffic that was internet bound, but also everything on the local lan and wireless net. At least in the router I have, there is a significant amount of dark radios on the board. There's a second (unused) 802.11n radio that in other editions is used as a second n stream but easily could be used to do full site surveys or packet capture or as an evil twin, a DECT (cordless phone) compatible phy that could impersonate a cordless basestation and if I read the spec sheet right a bluetooth and powerline phy. The verizon STB for their converged QAM/IPTV also downloads a portion of their firmware from the management servers and verifies hashes and oprational state TCG style - if they aren't connected to the network they will never actually finish booting. Details are limited about what the CISCO built STB contains on the inside, but it at least has a light sensor (ir remote) and a vibration / accelerometer (for sudden drop hd head park) that they have been touting as a feature that allows them to measure ad exposure based on floor vibrations that suggest you walked away during a commercial. They've also been recently touting a 99% effectiveness rate at uniquely identifying the viewer in multi person households based on statistical modeling of the order and speed buttons are pressed on the remote, though I'm unsure if that's with the current cisco gear or the new motorola (google) gear that they are just rolling out.

chiph 14y ago
touting as a feature that allows them to measure ad exposure based on floor vibrations that suggest you walked away during a commercial. Ok, now that's creepy. Time to get a Jack Russell Terrier & a tennis ball.
- trotsky 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure the generations in development have video cameras and microphones (to allow you to cough wave your hands or speak to change channels, of course). That same platform also has ISM radios in monitoring mode so that they can see what devices are present and obtain rough positioning data. So they'll know when you get home based on your phone mac appearing, and how many people are on the couch and who they are. here is the video recognition stb patent application that includes a number of eye openers: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20130042270.pdf http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20130042270.pdf

cheez 14y ago

Well, as long as they have a warrant. Oh... "The government has long asserted that it doesn’t need to obtain a probable-cause warrant to use the devices because they don’t collect the content of phone calls and text messages and operate like pen-registers and trap-and-traces, collecting the equivalent of header information." Fuck you.

bediger4000 14y ago
Indeed. Personally, I've always wondered how pen-registers could be legally used without the permission of the registered. It just seems like snooping. Yes, I realize Courts Have Decided, and The Legal Issues Are All Tidily Wrapped Up, but really, how un-American is a pen-register? On a related note, do US federal law enforcement agencies suffer a significant personnel turnover because people finally have pangs of conscience over what they're required to do?
- kefka 14y ago
  With a 99% conviction rate in federal court.... "They only find the bad people. What's there to be ashamed of that?"

DannyBee 14y ago

Oversight? Y'all know the FBI has no direct oversight from Congress, right? That the oversight happens (theoretically) through the promulgation and enforcement of guidelines from the attorney general? There are public ones: http://www.justice.gov/ag/readingroom/guidelines.pdf http://www.justice.gov/ag/readingroom/guidelines.pdf and there are also secret ones that are not published. Occasionally the FBI goes to congress out of the goodness of their heart and gives them an update, to avoid congress getting uppity. The last 3-4 times this has happened, it's usually been to say "whoops, we've been completely and totally violating our internal guidelines"

RexRollman 14y ago
When it comes to protecting the people they represent from unconstitional monitoring, Congress has failed epically. I suspect that it is because the people and groups who care about this subject don't line their pockets.

16s 14y ago

Cellphones are tracking devices. Plain and simple. The fact that the trackees/victims are paying 70 to 100 bucks each month to build and support the tracking infrastructure is the amazing part.

sukuriant 14y ago
Ever tried working in BigCo since they've been a part of the world for any extended period of time? I only know one person that successfully lived without a cell phone in the modern world for a while.
- grecy 14y ago
  I'm a Software Engineer in a company with 500 employees, and I have not had a cell phone for > 7 yeas. Granted, I live in a town of only 40k people, though I previously lived in a city of 1.5Mil, and before that 3Mil, both without a cell. It's extremely liberating.
- Pwnguinz 14y ago
  I live in the South Bay. I do not have a cell phone. I'm a full stack engineer at a startup that's raised series A--not some grumpy "Get off of my lawn!" grandpa. What urgency is there to need a cellphone for, in most routine days? Sure, it would suck if something horrible happened to a member of my family and I couldn't be contacted until I got home, oh maybe 4 hours later. Short of some such edge case scenarios, "it can wait".
  - lurkinggrue 14y ago
    My car broke down earlier today and I had to call AAA. Glad I didn't have to get out of my car to contact somebody. This would have been a routine day if I hadn't broke down. Bet you don't own a TV either.
    - 16s 14y ago
      Carry a 2M HT and hit the local repeater when you break down. Give them your position and they'll call a tow truck for you.

runjake 14y ago

An aside, tower information is/was available via the Android frameworks. When I was on Android, I wrote a little widget that displayed the tower ID and other information of the tower I was currently connected to. In short order, I had the few tower IDs that I used as I roamed around the metro memorized. After reading the article, which was great and had many details, I think this would be a viable strategy for activists worried about governmental abuse, harassment, and surveillance. Spoofing tower IDs would probably present some operational issues amongst customers. Of course, I wouldn't rely on this if my life or freedom depended on it -- and I'd certainly use a community-based ROM, such as Cyanogenmod. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/cdma/package-summary.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/cdm... http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/cdma/CdmaCellLocation.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/cdm... http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/gsm/package-summary.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/gsm...

futhey 14y ago

Even in an active DF system you don't need to flash the phone's programming (not exactly firmware, more like settings, the short list of instructions the phone regularly receives from cellular networks that `hack` it to work within it's operating environment)