‘CIA used tools to hide malware’s origin’

The CIA appears to have developed tools to cover up its hacking attempts. This is the so-called Marble framework, released by WikiLeaks, which includes tools to hide text that could lead to the CIA.

Leak website WikiLeaks has put the hacking tools in question, which according to the organization were developed by the CIA, on its website. Under the code name Marble, the American intelligence service is said to have created several tools with which it could disguise its hacking attempts. For example, one of the tools hides texts to prevent security researchers from being able to trace malware to the CIA.

There is also a method in the toolset to restore the hidden texts. Because WikiLeaks has put the software online, researchers could use this deobfuscator to attribute past hacking attacks to the CIA. In source codes posted online by WikiLeaks, examples have been found in languages ​​such as Farsi, Chinese, and Russian. In doing so, the CIA would attempt to attribute hacking attacks to other countries. However, not everyone agrees with WikiLeaks’ reading. Like this stilt developer Jake Williams that the obscuring of texts in other languages ​​seems only intended for testing and offers no real possibilities to perform so-called false flag operations.

The Marble toolset only contains software to hide the origin of hacking attacks, so it does not contain any new exploits. However, WikiLeaks has exposed CIA malware several times in recent weeks, including hacking tools for Cisco switches. The CIA also has a special network dongle to hack into Macs.