The Ministry of Internal Affairs wants a super-hacker

For some reason, right now, the media began to spread a message that the security forces of the Russian Federation invite (for money) of interested citizens to hack the Tor network. On the subject, of course, obtaining data on its users. And this is a very interesting topic.

Actually, it is not entirely clear why it suddenly flared up today. At the "state procurement" order for a “ study of the possibility of obtaining technical information about users (user equipment) of an anonymous TOR network”, the “Thor (Fleet)” code (fleet) has been hanging for 10 days already. However, a nuance: now the “name of the procurement object” has been cut, the substantial part has been removed. But there is an original screenshot with all this detail.

Well, in general, hanging and hanging. There is a lot of things there, for example (quoted by " *Bayan *the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation wants to hack" tor ")))):):

"Fulfillment of the research" Study of the possibility of identifying and fixing information about users of the Internet that spread prohibited materials ", the cipher" weeds (fleet) "
http://zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/zkk...100088714000009
Conducting the OCD “Development of a hardware and software complex designed to intercept information from peripheral devices”, the “interceptor (fleet)” code
http://zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/zkk...100088714000010
Fulfillment of the OCD "Modernization of special technical means of the information collection system and access to the resources of communication operators", the Cipher "Interbia (Navy)"
http://zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/zkk...100088714000011 "

And RBC also mentions this : “ The same organization“ Special Technique and Communication ”, according to Zakupki.gov.ru, announced another tender - to create a program for access to other people's computers.
The implementation of the OCD “Creation of a hardware and software complex for conducting an unspoken and hidden remote access to promptly significant information on the target electronic computing machine” (Cipher-“Chameleon-2 (Navy)”) was estimated at 20 million rubles. maximum. Applications are accepted until August 14. "

In a word, the case is familiar, and for some reason it was on Friday July 25 that all this ended up in the media, and a wide front. Even "Kommersant" unsubscribed - despite the fact that the authors of the article are somehow doubtful in the topic. They, for example, have even this:
" To the network, which makes it possible to maintain anonymity when visiting sites, publishing materials, sending messages, only 160 thousand people per day join Russia. In this indicator, our country took third place in the world (ahead of Germany and the USA), despite the beginning of the year only the ninth ."

To figure out only 160 thousand Russian people a day, huh? Well, it turns out, how many computer-graphic in the Russian Federation are higher than the average level? And what is he then, the average level, oh ... Well, in general, if even those who are completely different in it, that is, in this, is something concrete in it, in general. No, we will not solve this secret here, but the story is interesting.

The most general description of the topic is that "Tor browsers provide an anonymous network connection that does not allow outsiders to intercept the data and identify users. The anonymity of the traffic is achieved due to the distributed network of server encrypting information." It is clear that on the network you can find a bunch of resources that are engaged in all sorts of bad things. So, in principle, it is useful to hack. From the point of view of Russian realities, more and more specifically. The lawyer of the Pirate Party Darbinyan told the BBC that " the Ministry of Internal Affairs is probably not interested in the fight against world cybercrime, but to block sites ." Namely:

“ Law enforcement officers are concerned about the ability of users anonymously going to the network and visit blocked sites. The Law on Bloggers de Fact is canceled anonymity, forcing popular bloggers to determine, indicate the name. If the blogger uses a network like Tor, uses“ nickname ”, it becomes impossible to calculate its whereabouts,” the expert said.
The Bloggers Law, which enters into force on August 1, introduces mandatory registration for popular bloggers - those whose audience is more than three thousand people a day. They will have to comply with the same requirements as registered media.
The mass use of Tor reduces to zero all those legislative initiatives that have been adopted recently, the expert explains . "

Well, maybe so. Although not necessary at all. But from the BBC, it became clearer about the Kommersantovsky "160 thousand per day": " The number of users of an anonymous network in Russia during the first two weeks of June increased sharply: at the end of May there were about 80 thousand, and by the middle of the last month-more than 200 thousand ." And the data can be seen at this link .

Well, now: all this is very difficult, Hakk Thor. Even in Vicki, an article about this network occupies approximately 7-8 screens, and 349 pieces in the notes to the text (with live links). So it is recommended to read at least it.

In short, the essence is that (quote from there) “ Tor (Soc. From the English. The Onion Router) is free software for the implementation of the second generation of the so-called“ onion routing. ”This is a proxy server system that allows you to install an anonymous network connection protected from listening. Users can maintain anonymity in the Internet Visiting materials, sending messages and when working with other applications using the TCP protocol. commercial secrets, business contacts, etc. "

It is believed that with proper use, Tor " provides a fairly high degree of protection against espionage programs such as Prism ." Here, Snowden transmitted information about Prism to Washington Post and Guardian via Tor, special services use the network for sending information, and there, of course, sell weapons, drugs and other eternal values.

The mystery is somewhat violated by the fact that Tor was created at the Center for High-Product Computing Systems of the US Research Laboratory of the US Navy as part of the Free Haven project, together with DARPA on a federal order. However, in 2002, this development was decided to declassify this development, the initial texts were transmitted to independent developers who created a client-server application and published the source code under a free license.

However, one of the verification version is that the system was opened precisely so that users could check it for the absence of bugs and backdors. Like that it does not kill us - makes us stronger.

As for hacking, ( according to RBC ): “ In order to hack the Tor, the task can be divided into two-the search for users in Tor and directly their deanonymization, that is, understanding who is behind a specific connection, what resources this person visits on the network and what he does ... the US National Security Agency (ANB) is allegedly able to filter the Internet traffic and find the connection to Tor, and now the second The task has not yet been solved . "

There are already legends. With the participation, of course, like our person, the same RBC reports:
" In 2013, the FBI officially confirmed that it was trying to hack servers serving an anonymous network. Attempts to reveal Tor users also made the US National Security (NSA).
In August, the Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas will be held, at which employees of the University of Carnegie-Mellon Alexander Volynkin and Maikal McCord were going to talk about how to identify Tor users. But the university lawyers forbade the authors to disclose their method, and the report was canceled. In the announcement of the report, the authors wrote that attackers can deanonymize hundreds of thousands of TOR users and thousands of hidden services in a few months and will spend less than 3 thousand dollars on this, Volynkin did not respond to the request of RBC . "

Well, as before the tender, which has become the subject of current publications, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which means, is allegedly correlated with the law on bloggers and thinks how to help Roskomnadzor, so that if he blocked sites, and that’s all. But it is unlikely that this completely covers the meaning of the tender. Well, everything is more interesting there, not to mention the fact that there is a specific challenge to creative consciousness. The price of the question is some perplexity - up to 3.9 million rubles, which is somehow ridiculous, given the greatness of the task. But this may mean that the solutions to the problem are not waiting here, but rather, while they are offering to present some move on this topic that would look adequate for further developments.

In general, this is cool. Like in a fairy tale: FBR Hakalo -Hakalo - not Kokhakalo. Then Anb Hakalo - it didn’t work out either. Well, now the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation went to the projectile.