[Infowarrior] - Code for Skype Spyware Released to Thwart Surveillance

[Richard Forno]

Code for Skype Spyware Released to Thwart Surveillance
	• By Kim Zetter
	• August 31, 2009  |
	• 2:44 pm  |
	• Categories: Cybersecurity

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/skype-trojan/
A Swiss programmer who crafted malware for intercepting and recording  
Voice-over-IP phone calls has posted the source code online to draw  
attention to vulnerabilities in programs such as Skype, and to make it  
harder for law enforcement to surreptitiously use the malware for  
surveillance, according to Tech World.

Ruben Unteregger, 33, wrote the code for “MiniPanzer” and “MegaPanzer”  
in 2006 for his former employer, ERA IT Solutions. The company  
allegedly sold the malware to Swiss authorities to be used for  
surveillance.

Once installed on a machine, the malware hooks into Window’s audio  
drivers, thus bypassing Skype’s proprietary encryption. It then  
records the victim’s VoIP calls as MP3s, which are sent to a remote  
server for an eavesdropper to collect. The programs were developed to  
work on Windows XP, but Unteregger said in an interview published last  
week that the programs likely would work with other Windows operating  
systems as well.

Unteregger, who said he retained copyright for the programs, released  
the source code and two compiled binaries last week so that anti-virus  
companies could write signatures to detect the malware and frustrate  
efforts by authorities to secretly plant the programs on targeted  
computers.

Days after Unteregger released his code, Symantec and TrendMicro  
announced that their anti-virus programs had already detected copies  
of a Skype trojan in the wild, which appears to resemble Unteregger’s  
programs.