WikiLeaks says CIA hacked users’ devices in ways they could not be fixed

New documents from WikiLeaks suggest that the CIA had operated a programme to hack Apple's iPhones and Mac computers using techniques that users would not be able to disable even by resetting them.

According to security experts, though the exploits were plausible, they posed little threat to typical users as many of the tricks were old as the iPhone hack involved the 3G model from 2008. The techniques also typically required physical access to devices, which meant only devices of targeted individuals were vulnerable and not users at large.

"The most notable part of this latest WikiLeaks release is that it shows the CIA doing exactly what we pay them to - exploit specific targets with limited attacks to support our national interests," Associated Press quoted Rich Mogull, CEO of the security research firm Securosis.

The CIA had chosen to not comment on the authenticity of this and earlier WikiLeaks revelations, but had earlier said it complied with a legal prohibition against electronic surveillance "targeting individuals here at home, including our fellow Americans."

Wikileaks had in recent weeks published a trove of  alleged CIA documents describing hacking tools it said the government employed to break into computers, mobile phones and even smart TVs from companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung.

According to WikiLeaks, the documents revealed the "Sonic Screwdriver" project which, according to the CIA was a "mechanism for executing code on peripheral devices while a Mac laptop or desktop is booting" allowing an attacker to boot its attack software for example from a USB stick "even when a firmware password is enabled". The CIA's "Sonic Screwdriver" infector is stored on the modified firmware of an Apple Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter.

"DarkSeaSkies" is "an implant that persists in the EFI firmware of an Apple MacBook Air computer" and consists of "DarkMatter", "SeaPea" and "NightSkies", respectively EFI, kernel-space and user-space implants.''

''Documents on the "Triton" MacOSX malware, its infector "Dark Mallet" and its EFI-persistent version "DerStarke" are also included in this release. While the DerStarke1.4 manual released today dates to 2013, other Vault 7 documents show that as of 2016 the CIA continues to rely on and update these systems and is working on the production of DerStarke2.0.''

''Also included in this release is the manual for the CIA's "NightSkies 1.2" a "beacon/loader/implant tool" for the Apple iPhone. Noteworthy is that NightSkies had reached 1.2 by 2008, and is expressly designed to be physically installed onto factory fresh iPhones. i.e the CIA has been infecting the iPhone supply chain of its targets since at least 2008.''

Meanwhile, Apple had rejected the possibility of hacking of its devices with the techniques detailed saying they were ''old'' and were ''fixed years ago''

Apple said the exploits outline in the CIA's documents were limited to iPhone 3G and Mac, and were patched back in 2009 and 2013, for the respective devices.

''We have preliminarily assessed the WikiLeaks disclosures from this morning. Based on our initial analysis, the alleged iPhone vulnerability affected iPhone 3G only and was fixed in 2009 when iPhone 3G was released. Additionally, our preliminarily assessment shows the alleged Mac vulnerabilities were previously fixed in all Macs launched after 2013,'' Apple told TechCrunch.