Wikileaks Vault 7: CIA Dumbo Tool Used To Disable Security Camera

Wikileaks released its latest trove of documents purported to be from the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), this time showing the agency’s capability to disable security cameras and destroy digital recordings.

The new release published Thursday encompasses a supposed CIA program known as Dumbo. The tool developed by the agency to be used in field operations could target a number of surveillance devices that may capture an agent’s activity.

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Dumbo was a piece software stored on a USB flash drive that could be executed on a machine that a CIA operative had physical access to. There is no mention of remote execution for the tool in the CIA field guide published by Wikileaks.

The program required system administrator privileges to perform its activity. With those privileges, it could be executed on Windows machines and go to work scanning for and systematically shutting down surveillance tools.

Dumbo was capable of muting microphones, disabling network adapters, and shutting down webcams and other cameras. The tool could identify any devices installed on a system that were operating via wired or wireless networks, including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled devices. All processes related to those devices would be suspended by the tool.

Dumbo would also direct operators to where footage was stored on a system so it could be deleted or corrupted. According to Wikileaks, the process would aid in “creating fake or destroying actual evidence of the intrusion operation.”

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Dumbo supported 32-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and newer versions of Windows operating systems. The 64-bit versions of Windows XP and operating systems released prior to XP were not supported.

A field guide for Dumbo suggested operators disable any personal security products installed on a computer before running the tool, as antivirus tools often prevented it from executing. Kaspersky would apparently block Dumbo from running on Windows XP machines.

The most recent field guide for the tool published by Wikileaks was dated July 6, 2015. Prior field guides dated back to 2015. It is not clear if the tool has undergone additional updates or is still in use by the CIA.

The release is the latest from WikiLeaks as part of its Vault 7 series, which has focused on releasing leaked documents from the CIA detailing the government agency’s technical capabilities.

Previous leaks have shown the intelligence group’s ability to compromise Apple devices, Windows machines, launch malware attacks, obfuscate the origins of an attack to hide its tracks, compromise Wi-Fi routers to track a target’s activity online, attack air-gapped computer networks, track the location of a target via Wi-Fi and intercept text messages sent on Android devices.