Not going to lie, it felt pretty boring. When I read your comment I thought it was going to be a GFX designed warrant with an image of Morpheus offering Neo to take either of the pills, while The Silence of the Lambs was playing in the background.

Even in cyberpunk dystopias, I imagine bureaucracies are still bureaucracies.

This just seems very cool to me:

> a. First, the FBI will identify the current Tier 1 servers (which are also Qakbot infected victim computers) based on information collected by the FBI.

> b. Second, an FBI-controlled computer will contact each of those Tier 1 servers using commands built into the Qakbot malware and Qakbot encryption keys known to the FBI. The FBI will instruct each Tier 1 server to download and install an FBI-created module that replaces the “supernode” module in the already-installed Qakbot malware (“FBI Supernode Module”). The FBI Supernode Module contains a new encryption key that will make it impossible for the Qakbot administrators to communicate with the Tier 1 servers. The proposed warrant would authorize replacement of the “supernode” module to allow the FBI to communicate with and search infected computers that make up the botnet. The proposed warrant therefore also authorizes law enforcement officers to seize or copy from the infected computers electronically stored information related to the Qakbot malware, including encryption keys and server lists used by the Qakbot administrators to communicate with computers that are part of the Qakbot infrastructure.

> c. Third, the FBI will contact each of those Tier 1 servers using commands built into the Qakbot malware. The FBI will instruct those Tier 1 servers to communicate with an FBI- controlled server (the “FBI Server”) instead of the Qakbot Tier 2 servers. At this point all communications from infected botnet computers will be routed through the Tier 1 servers to the FBI Server, rather than to the Qakbot Tier 2 and Tier 3 servers.

> d. Fourth, infected computers subject to this warrant that make up the botnet would then communicate with the FBI Server instead of the Tier 3 server. As noted above, the Qakbot malware instructs the infected computers to contact the Tier 3 server every one to four minutes. When those infected computers contact the FBI Server, the server will instruct them to download a second file created by law enforcement (“the Qakbot Uninstaller”). This warrant would authorize this action, with the intent that computers in the United States that are infected with the Qakbot malware will download the Qakbot Uninstaller from the FBI Server via the FBI-controlled Tier 1 servers. The proposed warrant therefore authorizes law enforcement officers to seize or copy from the infected computers electronically stored information related to the Qakbot malware, including IP addresses and routing information necessary to determine whether the infected computer continues to be controlled by the Qakbot botnet.

> Step one: Identify the target and its flaws. There are always flaws.

> I learned that early in life. My first hack, the local library, a vulnerable FTP server in its AS/400. A far cry from the Android zero days I'm using to own the FBI standard-issue smartphone. The library was a test to see if I could even get into the system. I've since set greater goals.

> For instance, step two: Build malware and prepare an attack. At my fingertips, the zero day is wrapped in code like a Christmas present, then becomes an exploit, the programmatic expression of my will.

> I live for this shit.

--Elliott, on hacking the FBI (Mr. Robot)

That does read a bit like Neal Stephenson.

Thanks for the link, the fun reading starts on page 12.

I think I'll change my SSID to 'FBI Supernode'