FAQ: What we know (now) about the FBI's CIPAV spyware

Computerworld - Tucked into an affidavit filed by an FBI agent last month was the first hard evidence that federal agents are equipped with more than automatic pistols and handcuffs: The agency was asking a federal judge to let it infect a PC with spyware so they could finger its owner.

The case, which was reported locally in Olympia, Wash., last month and received more national exposure this month, involved bomb threats e-mailed to Timberline High School in Lacey, Wash., an IP trail that went cold in Italy and a call to the FBI.

Special Agent Norm Sanders, who swore out the affidavit, could be Efrem Zimbalist Jr.'s doppelganger for all we know, but he must have been more talkative than the close-lipped character from the late-1960s TV drama The FBI to win over a judge. Sanders had to spill some beans about CIPAV, the agency's name for what the rest of us would call spyware -- software the FBI wanted to plant on the PC used to e-mail the bomb threats in the hope of identifying its owner, and thus the sender.

Until Computerworld's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request is granted and more information on CIPAV is reviewed -- and maybe not even then -- all we have to go on is this:

What is CIPAV? CIPAV, which stands for "Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier," is secret surveillance software that the FBI used last month to help identify whoever was e-mailing bomb threats almost daily to a Washington high school. Although at least one security professional agreed that CIPAV fits the description of spyware, much of what it is, or does, is unknown. What is known: The software collects a wide range of information from the target PC and sends it back to control -- in this case, the FBI -- and automatically records every outbound communication, though not the contents of said communication. If that sounds like a bot, well. ...

What does CIPAV do? As the affidavit spelled out, "the exact nature of [CIPAV] commands, processes, capabilities and their configuration is classified as a law enforcement-sensitive investigative technique," so not all the facts are in.

But according to the court filing, this is what the CIPAV collects from the infected computer:

• IP address
• Media Access Control address for the network card
• List of open TCP and UDP ports
• List of running programs
• Operating system's type, version and serial number (in Windows, the serial number is the 25-digit alphanumeric product activation key)
• Default browser and its version
• Default language of the operating system
• Currently logged-in user (username) and registered company name (The latter is optional in Windows.)
• Last visited URL