CRIME FBI's "Magic Lantern" and McAfee Antivirus

From: Crispin Cowan (crispin@private)
Date: Sat Nov 24 2001 - 19:58:34 PST

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    This article 
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1436-2001Nov22.html 
    (which is mostly about the FBI's "Magic Lantern" crypto key sniffing 
    mail virus) also mentions that McAfee Antivirus will NOT detect and 
    report Magic Lantern, now highlighted on Slashdot 
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/24/2324241&mode=thread 
    <http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/24/2324241&mode=thread>
    
    Civil liberties issues aside, this would seem to present a serious 
    security issue. Attackers *other* than the FBI could pirate the Magic 
    Lantern Virus, and use it to obtain private keys. Look for Magic 
    Toolkits at a warez site near you :-)
    
    Jimmy: I expect that you did not make this decision, but can you comment 
    on it? How does McAffee plan to keep the Magic Lantern back door from 
    becoming a wide-open virus transport protocol?
    
    Thanks,
        Crispin
    
    -- 
    Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
    Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc. http://wirex.com
    Security Hardened Linux Distribution:       http://immunix.org
    Available for purchase: http://wirex.com/Products/Immunix/purchase.html
    



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