How NSA access was built into Windows

Dave Stevens geek at uniserve.com
Mon Jan 15 13:50:02 UTC 2007


On Sunday 14 January 2007 20:58, Claude Jones wrote:
> " A CARELESS mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special
> access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly
> built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of
> the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows
> 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes close on the heels of the
> revelations earlier this year that another US software giant, Lotus, had
> built an NSA "help information" [local] trapdoor into its Notes system, and
> that security functions on other software systems had been deliberately
> crippled.
>
> The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years ago by
> British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a few weeks ago
> when a second researcher rediscovered the access system. With it, he found
> the evidence linking it to NSA.
>
> Computer security specialists have been aware for two years that unusual
> features are contained inside a standard Windows software "driver" used for
> security and encryption functions. The driver, called
> ADVAPI.DLL,.........snip"
>
> The rest is here: http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html
>
> So, my question is, if this is all true, then, what about Selinux?

The best thing written on the subjest, as far as I know, is this:

http://www.acm.org/classics/sep95/

by Ken Thompson

Dave

> --
> Claude Jones
> Brunswick, MD, USA

-- 
"The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment."
   -- Herman Daly, former senior economist at the World Bank.  




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