Monday, February 3, 2014

Schneier on Security: JUNIORMINT: NSA Exploit of the Day

Source:  Schneier on Security: JUNIORMINT: NSA Exploit of the Day



Schneier on Security

A blog covering security and security technology.
February 3, 2014

JUNIORMINT: NSA Exploit of the Day

Today's item from the NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) group implant catalog:
JUNIORMINT
(TS//SI//REL) JUNIORMINT is a digital core packaged in both a mini Printed circuit Board (PCB), to be used in typical concealments, and a miniaturized Flip Chip Module (FCM), to be used in implants with size constraining concealments.
(TS//SI//REL) JUNIORMINT uses the TAO standard implant architecture. The architecture provides a robust, reconfigurable, standard digital platform resulting in a dramatic performance improvement over the obsolete HC12 microcontroller based designs. A mini Printed Circuit Board (PCB) using packaged parts will be developed and will be available as the standard platform for applications requiring a digital core. The ultra-miniature Flip Chip Module (FCM) will be available for challenging concealments. Both will contain an MRM9 microcontroller, FPGA, Flash, SDRAM and DDR2 memories.
Status: Availability -- mini-PCB and Dev Board by April 2009, FCM by June 2010
Unit Cost: Available Upon Request
Page, with graphics, is here. General information about TAO and the catalog is here.
In the comments, feel free to discuss how the exploit works, how we might detect it, how it has probably been improved since the catalog entry in 2008, and so on.

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