Re: NSA coughs up secret TEMPEST specs ... posted on Cryptome

["Talisker" <Talisker () networkintrusion co uk>]

Not sure what this has to do with firewalls?

Firstly TEMPEST doesn't stand for anything, however as your rightly point
out some enterprising individuals have made some words fit quite well.  I
was a TEMPEST tester in a previous life.

As to the rest, it's not entirely accurate but fairly close, the exploitable
video signals mentioned aren't generated by changes in text on the monitor,
but more the fact that the refresh rate causes the same information to be
transmitted around 85 times each second, effectively continuously.  In
contrast the emanations from a keyboard are very hard to reconstitute
because you have to catch more of the signal, and can't afford to miss much.
The author is spot on regarding the health issue with monitors, EMC
regulations have indeed reduced electromagnetic emanations from monitors,
though these regulations haven't been extended to graphics cards which still
pump out information 85 times a second!  To that end LCD monitors offer
little extra protection over a traditional monitor.

I wrote a TEMPEST FAQ some time ago it's on my site under counter
eavesdropping, giving some guidelines on how to protect yourself and
assertain whether you are under threat, the wording is understandably a
little mushy, but I can't help that without getting into trouble.  The same
applies to the info above, It's nothing that someone who's into electronics
and RF couldn't point out.

Take care
Andy
http://www.networkintrusion.co.uk
Talisker's Network Security Tools List
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talisker () networkintrusion co uk

The opinions contained within this transmission are entirely my own, and do
not necessarily reflect those of my employer.





----- Original Message -----
From: <solaar () hushmail com>
To: <firewall-wizards () nfr com>
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 12:46 PM
Subject: [fw-wiz] NSA coughs up secret TEMPEST specs ... posted on Cryptome


> NSA coughs up secret TEMPEST specs
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/15743.html
>
> The first of several documents related to the US government's TEMPEST
programme,
>  obtained by Cryptome.org's John Young under a Freedom of Information Act
> (FOIA) request, have been posted on his Web site. His original request was
> denied, but the persistent Young sought an appeal of that decision, which
> was recently granted in his favour.
>
> No one is quite sure what TEMPEST stands for (some say it's an acronym
for:
> Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected From Emanating Spurious
> Transmissions". Others say it is a nothing more than a code word), but
what
> it means is quite simple: electromagnetic and acoustic signals which can
> be remotely detected and interpreted by a spy.
>
> We live in a veritable ocean of electromagnetic radiation, produced by
every
> gizmo we use at home and at work. They all produce signals; and believe
> it or not, our input to the devices, and their output, create modulations
> which can be 'read'.
>
> The video signals leaking from your monitor change as you type using a
text
> editor or word processor. It is (just barely) possible to capture the
signals
> and correlate these changes with the actual text, enabling a spy to read
> over your shoulder, so to speak.
>
> Practically speaking, reading the signals from a person's monitor is no
> longer feasible, as they are now well shielded due to health paranoia. But
> then, modems are a notoriously loud class of item, from which the 'noise'
> can easily be overheard and reconstructed. So are speaker phones,
intercoms,
>  outdated CRT monitors, much R&D equipment, you name it. They're all loud
> enough to be monitored without the physical implantation of any bugging
> device.
>
> Electrical wiring and telephone lines can transmit such signals by
conduction;
> walls can vibrate subtly, as can pipes, beams, ducts, and the like. The
> only fix is to silence the equipment, or to actively distort its signal
> emanations.
>
> The NSA's concern, obviously, is any government equipment which process
> national security information in plain text. Hence its TEMPEST programme,
>  which explains how to shield equipment and buildings against such
exploitation.
> And now, thanks to Young, we will all soon be able to figure out how to
> make our electronic equipment as quiet as the government's. This could be
> quite useful to academic and corporate researchers, whose activities are
> of sufficient value to make them targets of TEMPEST-style exploitation.
>
> It will also offer great comfort to the many paranoid boneheads whose egos
> dispose them to imagine that their deluded rants are of interest to
national
> security operators. Many a blissful hour may now be spent pulling down
walls
> and ceilings and ripping the guts out of suspect computers, televisions,
>  telephones, stereos, microwave ovens, clocks and radios.
>
> Hey, if it keeps them off the streets, we're all for it.


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