Yahoo – AFP,
March 23, 2017
 |
| According to Wikileaks documents the CIA can inject a undetectable bug deep into the essential firmware of an Apple Mac computer that will not be erased even when the computer is reformatted (AFP Photo/JUSTIN SULLIVAN) |
Washington
(AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency is able to permanently infect an Apple
Mac computer so that even reinstalling the operating system will not erase the
bug, according to documents published Thursday by WikiLeaks.
In its
second release allegedly from the CIA's arsenal of hacking tools, WikiLeaks
also said that it appears the US spy agency has been able since 2008 to insert
it bugs onto new and unused iPhones by intervening in Apple's supply and
distribution network.
The release
follows the initial publication on March 9 by the anti-secrecy group of
thousands of pages of instructions and code from what it called the entire CIA
arsenal of hacking tools.
The
documents are generally believed to be genuine although the CIA has not
acknowledged this.
The
publication of the documents sparked a US counterintelligence investigation
into how the documents leaked out from the CIA and made their way to WikiLeaks,
with some people pointing fingers at the agency's use of private subcontractors
as a likely source.
The newest
documents focus on how the CIA targets Apple's popular personal electronics to
spy on users.
They show
the CIA developed a tool in 2012 called "Sonic Screwdriver" that can
hijack an Apple computer's password-protected boot process from peripheral
devices like adapters and USB drives.
By doing
so, they can inject a undetectable bug deep into the computer's essential
firmware that will not be erased even when the computer is reformatted.
The manual
for the "NightSkies" bug shows that the CIA developed it in 2008 to
be implanted physically in brand new iPhones.
"While
CIA assets are sometimes used to physically infect systems in the custody of a
target, it is likely that many CIA physical access attacks have infected the
targeted organization's supply chain including by interdicting mail orders and
other shipments," WikiLeaks said.
The
documents provide a glimpse into the workings of the CIA. One showed the agency
urgently trying to adapt NightSkies to a certain Apple laptop.
The agency
"has the opportunity to gift a MacBook Air to a target that will be
implanted with this tool," one 2009 document said.
"The
tool will be a beacon/implant that runs in the background of a MacBook Air that
provides us with command and control capabilities."
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