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| #Vault7: WikiLeaks reveals CIA ‘Scribbles’ tool can track whistleblowers & foreign spies | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A user manual describing a CIA project known as ‘Scribbles’ has been published by WikiLeaks, exposing the potential for the spying agency to track when documents are leaked by whistleblowers or “Foreign Intelligence Officers.” | |
| Released as part of the whistleblowing organization’s ‘Vault 7’ series, the project is purportedly designed to allow the embedding of ‘web beacon’ tags into documents “likely to be stolen,”according to a press release from WikiLeaks. | |
| Commonly used in online analytics, web beacons are often embedded invisibly into web pages or emails to track user activity, including monitoring when and where a particular document was opened. | Commonly used in online analytics, web beacons are often embedded invisibly into web pages or emails to track user activity, including monitoring when and where a particular document was opened. |
| This means the CIA would be able to see when sensitive documents are accessed by third parties, including when they’re accessed by potential whistleblowers. | |
| WikiLeaks notes that the latest iteration of the tool is dated March 1, 2016 – indicating it was used up until at least last year – and was seemingly meant to remain classified until 2066. | WikiLeaks notes that the latest iteration of the tool is dated March 1, 2016 – indicating it was used up until at least last year – and was seemingly meant to remain classified until 2066. |
| READ MORE: ‘Top secret CIA virus control system’: WikiLeaks releases ‘Hive’ from #Vault7 series | READ MORE: ‘Top secret CIA virus control system’: WikiLeaks releases ‘Hive’ from #Vault7 series |
| The ‘Scribbles’ User Guide explains how the tool generates a random watermark for each document, inserts that watermark into the document, saves all such processed documents in an output directory, and creates a log file which identifies the watermarks inserted into each document. | The ‘Scribbles’ User Guide explains how the tool generates a random watermark for each document, inserts that watermark into the document, saves all such processed documents in an output directory, and creates a log file which identifies the watermarks inserted into each document. |
| Scribbles can watermark multiple documents in one batch and is designed to watermark several groups of documents. | Scribbles can watermark multiple documents in one batch and is designed to watermark several groups of documents. |
| The tool was successfully tested on Microsoft Office versions 1997-2016 and documents that are not locked forms, encrypted, or password protected. | The tool was successfully tested on Microsoft Office versions 1997-2016 and documents that are not locked forms, encrypted, or password protected. |
| The guide notes that the program has a number of flaws. | The guide notes that the program has a number of flaws. |
| Significantly, the watermarks were tested only with Microsoft Office applications so if the “targeted end-user” opened them with an alternative application, such as OpenOffice, they may be able to see the watermarks and URLs, potentially exposing the fact that the document is being tracked. | Significantly, the watermarks were tested only with Microsoft Office applications so if the “targeted end-user” opened them with an alternative application, such as OpenOffice, they may be able to see the watermarks and URLs, potentially exposing the fact that the document is being tracked. |
| The tool also sometimes generates errors for temporary reasons, like when the Microsoft Office applications do not properly “clean up their resources.” To rectify this the guide advises users to close all Office applications and then run Scribbles again with the same input parameters. |