With Claims of CIA Hacking, How to Protect Your Devices

WikiLeaks documents show CIA struggling to crack Apple gear, little danger to everyday folk Fortunately, I'm not vulnerable to any of this. I have a dumb TV (not even connected to either the internet or cable, just to my DVD player) and a dumb phone (a $10 Samsung that only does phone calls).

Do you have tape over the camera lens on your iMac?

No, but I have Face Time turned off.

But I wonder how many iPhones this is going to sell despite "little danger"?

WikiLeaks will share CIA hacking tools with Apple, other tech companies

I suspect that Apple is already at work developing a Safari interface that allows their servers to be used as the conduit for encrypted/VPN type surfing, e.g., no tracking, tracing, etc. But with a nominal subscription fee.

Well, at least I hoping for such. And if they do, 'tis likely another opportunity to visit a court room...

If you—despite your current precautions—are interested in keeping tabs on your system’s accesses of the built-in mic and/or camera, you might want to have a look at OverSight from Patrick Wardle’s Objective-See. Find a recent 3rd party write-up of this free and handy little utility HERE.

As pointed out in the post above, for all we know FaceTime may not be the only one to access the camera. And if there is a path to the camera there may be a way to externally access it, whether the user has it on or not.

Thanks for that link. I just dl'd and installed OverSight. Nobody (at least now) is trying to access my camera or microphone. Maybe I should be insulted?...

You got to be kidding, or into SM.

Dunno ... I was just chatting with my SmartFridge who had been arguing the point with my SmartThermostat and she opined ... [bleep] ...

Can you explain what OverSight does that /Applications/System Preferences > Flash Player > Camera & Mic > Block all sites from using the camera and microphone doesn't do? (I didn't see any reference to Flash in your linked review.)

Edit: Is it that your camera and mic can be accessed by entities other than websites?

Yes, exactly. The Flash pref only blocks Flash from using the camera/mic (Web sites still have ways to do this without Flash!). Oversight blocks everything.

Thanks, tacit.

I've got to give OverSight some thought.

It's not like I'm in danger of being compromised (My life is so uninteresting that I've considered trying to sell it as a reality show to replace the Yule log.), and I really hate to succumb to paranoia just because it's there.

Edit: I just noticed that OverSight works via Notifications, which I've got turned off.

Since I use my iPhone and iPad almost as much as my Mac and Oversight does not, probably cannot, work on iOS I broke down and bought a set of these.

Of course the next website I went to revealed Apple had already fixed most of the vulnerabilities. Apparently the CIA isn't keeping up with the changing times.

They're awfully pricey at $7.98 for three minuscule pieces of "plastic", even if the material is unique, and despite its potentially eternal life.


Paranoia isn't dealt with cheaply, is it?

It can be. I use scissors to cut off the sticky end of a Post-It note and it works great. It can stay there forever and, if you do remove it, there's no residue. I guess I have more Scottish blood than I thought.

How low-tech of you!

I tried that the sticky note solution once on my iPhone. The sticky note did not survive the first insertion into my shirt pocket, but it did survive the wash ending up a small yellow ball in the pocket seam.

Although the discussion has moved on, I think it’s still helpful to emphasize a few aspects of the way OverSight works. First off, it doesn’t automatically block* an attempt to eavesdrop via the built-in mic or camera, it only monitors their activation. Once it detects access or activation, it offers the option to block this via a notification that requires user input to be executed.
Second, in order to perform its monitoring, it uses APIs that may be bypassed, which in turn allows for ways to disable OverSight. In this respect OverSight’s documentation states:

As with any security tool, direct or proactive attempts to specifically bypass OverSight's protections will likely succeed. Moreover, the current version over OverSight utilizes user-mode APIs in order to monitor for audio and video events. Thus any malware that has a kernel-mode or rootkit component may be able to access the webcam and mic in an undetected manner.

In conclusion, OverSight is a useful but limited tool. The taping off of both cam and mic will help, assuming the resultant signal attenuation (especially of the audio portion) is sufficient. How to do this reliably and durably with mobile devices is another question. Here too (the blocking of) eavesdropping via audio may be the greater issue. And from a larger privacy point of view, one should not forget that users can be followed in ways that are beyond the reach of OverSight to affect.


* Monitoring results may be used to trigger events other than a simple notification, but those events are as yet not implemented.

Back on topic: WikiLeaks documents show CIA struggling to crack Apple gear, little danger to everyday folk

Newly leaked documents show low-level CIA Mac and iPhone hacks

Interesting reading. The thing that jumped out at me is that all the described attacks require physical access; the CIA actually has to get their hands on the Apple gear to be hacked, it can't be done remotely.

I suspect the SonicScrewdriver attack has long since been closed off. EFI attacks are getting harder and harder to do as Apple becomes more aware of them.