The Feds Cracked El Chapo's Encrypted Comms Network by Flipping His System Admin

https://gizmodo.com/the-feds-cracked-el-chapos-encrypted-communications-net-1831595734

by lnguyen • 8 years ago

89 36 8 years ago

morley• 8 years ago

I'm curious about this encrypted VoIP network. I've never heard of an off-the-shelf product like that, so was it custom-written? What was the interface like?

The source NYT article has some more details, but not enough to answer these questions:

  One of Mr. Guzmán’s Colombian suppliers, Jorge Cifuentes, 
  who introduced the kingpin to the I.T. expert, testified 
  last month that Mr. Rodriguez had promised to arrange 
  secure communications for what amounted to the entire 
  cartel’s leadership. His system operated on VoiP, or voice 
  over internet protocol, Mr. Marston said on Tuesday, and 
  was accessible only to those within the network. According 
  to Mr. Cifuentes, Mr. Guzmán was able to sign in through 
  Wi-Fi even from his hide-outs in the Sierra Madre 
  mountains.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/nyregion/el-chapo-trial.h...

segfaultbuserr• 8 years ago

Why can't it be a common off-the-shelf VoIP server with a custom deployment? e.g. a Mumble server behind TLS with client authorization?

dylz• 8 years ago

I would imagine this is just a standard open source SIP server or something plus VPN, with encryption turned on.

newman314• 8 years ago

IMO, the article was a little breathless in its reporting.

I wonder if the encryption here is just SRTP/ZRTP.

nimbius• 8 years ago

Asterisk has had SIP/TLS for a 5 years now. Ive tried it a few times, and its not too bad with ECDSA or smaller RSA keys.

https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/AST/SIP+TLS+Transport

jasonjayr2• 8 years ago

I have a tinc + asterisk setup to my cell phone (for my personal/home line) and openvpn + asterisk to desk Yealink phones (They have built-in openvpn clients) (for business)

Fairly easy to maintain + grow once you get some basics out of the way. The net result is that all the signaling + transport is encrypted as far as non-VPN nodes are concerned.

addajones• 8 years ago

I’d love to know about this setup! What hardware you run it on and where you get the #’s from for the home line. Trying to set up something like this for myself at home and business. Thank you!!

Liblor• 8 years ago

According to this [1] dutch article, they used a private Blackberry server.

[1] https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/nederlandse-pol...

paxys• 8 years ago

Reminds me of https://xkcd.com/538/

No matter the technological sophistication, humans will always be the weakest link in any secure system.

1001101• 8 years ago

This is a form of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-hose_cryptanalysis

unparagoned• 8 years ago

God, I recognise that specific comic just from the number in the url...

giancarlostoro• 8 years ago

I remember an article on HN about disappearing techs who were kidnapped by cartels to build them a custom telecoms network or something. Wondering how related this could be to that.

Edit - found the article:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9145003

jotm• 8 years ago

Oh they turned him to their side. I was wondering how he could give away anything while they showed him the finger(s) :D

onetimemanytime3• 8 years ago

DEA /FBI offers /can offer millions to cooperating witnesses and a new identity. Or life in prison. Or death in the hands of the cartel if they find out about the chat. They kinda make it very easy to choose.

Jorge Salcedo that took down Cali cartel got million$ for his cooperation.

Apocryphon• 8 years ago

The question is, how do these people avoid vengeful followers of the former cartel bosses?

RobertoG• 8 years ago

>"Jorge Salcedo that took down Cali cartel got million$ for his cooperation."

Do you have any source for that? because I read recently an interview [1] with the guy and I didn't get the impression he was so well financially.

[1] https://ew.com/tv/2017/09/03/narcos-jorge-salcedo-interview/

ChrisArchitect• 8 years ago

servers were in Canada?? interesting

HashThis• 8 years ago

The battleground in crypto is so often around crypto key management. With the Snowden revelations, it was obvious that the NSA strategy is going after keys in targets key management systems first.

Then cryptoanalysis becomes O(n)

carlosdp• 8 years ago

Amid the accounts of corruption, murder, and drug smuggling, Vice News’ Keegan Hamilton wrote on Twitter, there was a brief moment of levity when lights in the courtroom went out. When the electricity returned, someone shouted “He’s gone!”, referring to Guzmán’s habit of escaping from prison. “Everybody laughed, except maybe the U.S. Marshals,” Hamilton wrote.

It's interesting how even such a serious situation as this can have these moments of laughter.

exabrial• 8 years ago

I hope this guy is in witness protection!

qrbLPHiKpiux• 8 years ago

The feds didn't crack, I recall in the NYT article, the encryption keys were handed over from someone who flipped.

takinola• 8 years ago

Asking for a ... friend. What is the mitigation against attacks like this? Seriously, it would appear that every organization is at risk of having a trusted insider hand over keys to a competitor, criminals, etc. There must be a way to detect or protect against this, right?

wmf• 8 years ago

Dual control (aka the two-man rule), separation of duties (person who requests a change isn't allowed to approve/implement it), mandatory vacation, etc. These policies have existing in fields like finance for a while.

CodeWriter23• 8 years ago

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

rollulus• 8 years ago

The article mentions that the server was moved to the Netherlands, but not the reason. According to the Dutch press, it was because the FBI asked so, because we're not so difficult installing wire taps on the internet [1].

[1] https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/nederlandse-pol...

eoinclancy1• 8 years ago

Actually there are a few providers that do encrypted VoIP, or more specifically encrypted SIP. Telnyx offer a private infrastructure deployed around the world with low latency and the really good call quality.

https://telnyx.com/solutions/global-ip-network?utm_source=or...

TheMagicHorsey• 8 years ago

Well, we know at least one guy who is going to be dead shortly.

The Feds Cracked El Chapo's Encrypted Comms Network by Flipping His System Admin

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