24-06-2011, 05:19 AM
Aaron Barr: Pervert or Vigilante?
This article was written by truth in advertising![[Image: aaron-barr2-452x422.jpg]](http://crowdleaks.org/wp-content/uploads/aaron-barr2-452x422.jpg)
While trawling though the 71,800 HBGary emails recently acquired by Anonymous, I came across two that are more than a little bit disturbing. The first of these two emails, with a Subject: line of "You can't protect stupid" was sent by Aaron Barr to his colleagues at HBGary, Greg Hoglund, Ted Vera and Rich Cummings. This email contains a copy of a posting Mr. Barr made to a hacking forum http://www.hackforums.net.
It would appear that Mr. Barr, who was using the handle "Night Hacker", was a regular contributor to http://www.hackforums.net, having made some 121 posts between the date he joined the site in June 2010 and the date of this particular email, July 12th, 2010.
In this email, Aaron Barr describes how he frequents chatrooms populated by teenagers, e.g. 321.com. The full text of his email, as well as the response from HBGary CEO Greg Hoglund can be seen below.
Barr's original email: http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/aaron_hbgary_com/16436.html
Hoglund's response: http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/aaron_hbgary_com/7853.html
Once logged-in to 321.com, Barr claims he would adopt the persona of an underage female, using a "good photo… from MySpace of a nice looking chick…."
Barr further relates that he would choose a name like "Naughty Vicky" and describe himself as: "16 straight and naughty got some nice pictures…"
Barr describes purportedly sending pictures' to people and advising them to turn off their anti-virus programs it would appear from his wording that he intended to infect his victims with a keylogger, virus or a RAT (remote access trojan), witness his description:
as:
Now, it needs to be emphasized that Mr. Barr said in his hackforums.net post, and repeated again in email that: "This is something that I use" and "… I go straight to a chat room such as 321.com so sign up with a good name…."
In other words, Mr. Barr is stating that these are methods that he actually made use of as opposed to methods or examples that he is merely describing, or proposing that other people carry out.
The second email the only reply Mr. Barr received to the above email was from HBGary CEO Greg Hoglund, wherein Mr. Hoglund replied: "Thats fucking brilliant."
So, it would appear to be quite clear that neither Mr. Barr nor Mr. Hoglund had any qualms whatsoever with:
* Mr. Barr stealing young girls' photos from MySpace, and essentially using them as bait; and
* Mr. Barr's frequenting a teenage chatroom and posing as an underage female in order to entrap individuals and infect their computers with some variety of malware, possibly allowing for remote access to, and/or control of, their computers.
Now, neither Ted Vera nor Rich Cummings replied to Aaron Barr's email; one would have thought that if they had any moral or ethical objections whatsoever to Mr. Barr's stated actions, they would have said so, but they did not.
From the time of the Romans, from which much of our legal tradition is descended, comes the legal maxim:
"Qui tacet consentit" "Silence gives consent"
Accordingly, Mr. Vera's and Mr. Cummings' silence on this matter bespeaks their agreement with it.
Barr's email to his HBGary associates, like many others sent from his hbgary.com account, bears a valid digital signature, made with an S/MIME Class 1 Individual Signing Certificate purchased by Mr. Barr from VeriSign in April 2010. The existence of this valid digital signature authenticates this email beyond a reasonable doubt. It is provable therefore as neither a forgery, nor tampered with.
All the above activities raise a number of issues:
* By Mr. Barr's own admission he was ripping-off images of young girls from their MySpace pages, and using them as bait.
I regard the idea of a grown man (who is NOT a law-enforcement officer) skulking about in teenage chatrooms impersonating underage girls to be creepy, to put it mildly. This goes double, especially since (by his own admission) he's apparently using stolen images of real underage-appearing females as part of it.
One is led to wonder, is he using other stolen identity information as well?
* He describes himself as "Naughty Vicky" and states that he has some "… pictures please don't spread them though ok as don't want the whole world seeing them…"
I believe his intent here is to make his victims' (as he calls them) believe:
1) That he is a "naughty" underage female; and
2) That he has some photos, which he is willing to share, which are implied to be of an obscene and/or sexually-explicit nature.
Now, according to the so-called pandering' provisions of the currently-in-force American child pornography statute: 18 USC 2252(A)(3)(B), it is an offence to:
Whether in fact the images are sexually-explicit images of a minor or not, is totally irrelevant, for the purposes of this statute. It doesn't matter whether any such images even exist or not all that matters is that the recipient believe that these purported images being offered are:
1) of a minor; and
2) are sexually-explicit in nature.
The fact that Mr. Barr apparently intended to infect his victims' machines with a keylogger, virus or remote-access trojan (RAT) only underscores his belief that the victims' who took up his offer are/were pedophiles sexually interested in underage girls.
Finally, regardless of his motivations, it is a clear violation of any number of computer-crime statutes to attempt to install keyloggers/viruses/ trojans, whether or not carried out across state lines.
Mr. Barr lives in McLean, Virginia. According to the laws of the State of Virginia, the following activities are prohibited by law:
§ 18.2-152.4. Computer trespass; penalty.
A. It shall be unlawful for any person, with malicious intent, to:
[...]
6. Use a computer or computer network to make or cause to be made an unauthorized copy, in any form, including, but not limited to, any printed or electronic form of computer data, computer programs or computer software residing in, communicated by, or produced by a computer or computer network;
7. [Repealed.]
8. Install or cause to be installed, or collect information through, computer software that records all or a majority of the keystrokes made on the computer of another without the computer owner's authorization; or
9. Install or cause to be installed on the computer of another, computer software for the purpose of (i) taking control of that computer so that it can cause damage to another computer …
B. … If a person installs or causes to be installed computer software in violation of this section on more than five computers of another, the offense shall be a Class 6 felony. If a person violates subdivision A 8, the offense shall be a Class 6 felony.
Here is the full text of the relevant section of the U.S. child pornography statute:
Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc...A000-.html
[Edit: Above link is broken, use this one instead] http://tinyurl.com/18usc2252a
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 110 > § 2252A
§ 2252A. Certain activities relating to material constituting or containing child pornography
(a) Any person who
(3) knowingly
(B) advertises, promotes, presents, distributes, or solicits through the mails, or using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including by computer, any material or purported material in a manner that reflects the belief, or that is intended to cause another to believe, that the material or purported material is, or contains
(i) an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or
(ii) a visual depiction of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct;
Text of Aaron Barr's email:
From: Aaron Barr
Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary=Apple-Mail-482-7348960; protocol="application/pkcs7-signature"; micalg=sha1
Subject: You can't protect stupid
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:17:39 -0400
Message-Id:
Cc: Ted Vera ,
Rich Cummings
To: Greg Hoglund
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1081)
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081)
[snip]
Night Hacker Online
Learning Python 2.6
******
HF l33t Posts: 121
Joined: Jun 2010
Reputation: 1
Hi all I have decided to create a quick basic straight to the point TUT on a bit of Social Engineering, this is something that I use and it's handy if you are using a free Public Crypter and it only leaves your server FUD for a small amount of time.
Ok so first things first I go straight to a chat room such as 321.com so sign up with a good name e.g. Naughty Vicky get a good photo to use from MySpace of a nice looking chick save it to your computer, also remember to leave your msn your using in the profile you create so the victims can simply add you from there. So now go to the Teen chat you will get about 20-30 boxes pop up with questions such as ASL please now just copy and paste this …
[N.B.: ASL refers to Age, Sex, Location]
They say ASL now just copy and paste it in each box you will have about 20 Victims asking you.
Hey there 16 straight and naughty ive got some nice pictures add me it's (put your email)
Copy this above ^ into the 321 in each Victims chat box then wait tell they add you on your msn
Copy and paste this into your victims msn chat from your fake msn when you have added them.
Hey heres the pictures please don't spread them though ok as don't want the whole world seeing them
also you might need to take your crappy Antivirus off as msn picks up everything enjoy Tongue
Remember as well don't bother chatting to them for ages it's pointless it only puts them off in the long run, my trick is to simply go from one to the next if they moan block them and move one. "Try to sound as legit as possible" by adding smiley faces Tongue etc. If you do this you seem more like a chick and that is what you want "
Well that is pretty much what I use for sniping my victims this is just a simply basic TUT for any new members that might be finding it hard to spread servers etc… Thumbsup
Aaron Barr
CEO
HBGary Federal Inc.
Once again, the original can be seen at: http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/aaron_hbgary_com/16436.html
Here is Greg Hoglund's response:
Delivered-To: aaron@hbgary.com
Received: by 10.224.36.193 with HTTP; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:10:50 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To:
References:
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:10:50 -0700
Message-ID:
Subject: Re: You can't protect stupid
From: Greg Hoglund
To: Aaron Barr
Cc: Ted Vera , Rich Cummings
001517503cc81020d8048b38ddc8
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=001517503cc81020d4048b38ddc7
001517503cc81020d4048b38ddc7
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Thats fucking brilliant.
-G
Once again, the original can be seen at: http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/aaron_hbgary_com/7853.html
http://crowdleaks.org/aaron-barr-pervert-or-vigilante/
This article was written by truth in advertising
While trawling though the 71,800 HBGary emails recently acquired by Anonymous, I came across two that are more than a little bit disturbing. The first of these two emails, with a Subject: line of "You can't protect stupid" was sent by Aaron Barr to his colleagues at HBGary, Greg Hoglund, Ted Vera and Rich Cummings. This email contains a copy of a posting Mr. Barr made to a hacking forum http://www.hackforums.net. It would appear that Mr. Barr, who was using the handle "Night Hacker", was a regular contributor to http://www.hackforums.net, having made some 121 posts between the date he joined the site in June 2010 and the date of this particular email, July 12th, 2010.
In this email, Aaron Barr describes how he frequents chatrooms populated by teenagers, e.g. 321.com. The full text of his email, as well as the response from HBGary CEO Greg Hoglund can be seen below.
Barr's original email: http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/aaron_hbgary_com/16436.html
Hoglund's response: http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/aaron_hbgary_com/7853.html
Once logged-in to 321.com, Barr claims he would adopt the persona of an underage female, using a "good photo… from MySpace of a nice looking chick…."
Barr further relates that he would choose a name like "Naughty Vicky" and describe himself as: "16 straight and naughty got some nice pictures…"
Barr describes purportedly sending pictures' to people and advising them to turn off their anti-virus programs it would appear from his wording that he intended to infect his victims with a keylogger, virus or a RAT (remote access trojan), witness his description:
"…Free Public Crypter and it only leaves your server FUD for a small amount of time."
For those unfamiliar with this terminology, a Crypter has been describedas:
… free software used to hide… viruses, RATs or any keylogger from anti-viruses so that they are not detected and deleted by anti-viruses. Crypters may be coded in different launguages but [their] functionality remain[s] almost the same i.e to crypt your detectable servers so they become FUD…. FUD means Fully Undetectable….
http://www.technodevils.com/forum/showth...hp?tid=277Now, it needs to be emphasized that Mr. Barr said in his hackforums.net post, and repeated again in email that: "This is something that I use" and "… I go straight to a chat room such as 321.com so sign up with a good name…."
In other words, Mr. Barr is stating that these are methods that he actually made use of as opposed to methods or examples that he is merely describing, or proposing that other people carry out.
The second email the only reply Mr. Barr received to the above email was from HBGary CEO Greg Hoglund, wherein Mr. Hoglund replied: "Thats fucking brilliant."
So, it would appear to be quite clear that neither Mr. Barr nor Mr. Hoglund had any qualms whatsoever with:
* Mr. Barr stealing young girls' photos from MySpace, and essentially using them as bait; and
* Mr. Barr's frequenting a teenage chatroom and posing as an underage female in order to entrap individuals and infect their computers with some variety of malware, possibly allowing for remote access to, and/or control of, their computers.
Now, neither Ted Vera nor Rich Cummings replied to Aaron Barr's email; one would have thought that if they had any moral or ethical objections whatsoever to Mr. Barr's stated actions, they would have said so, but they did not.
From the time of the Romans, from which much of our legal tradition is descended, comes the legal maxim:
"Qui tacet consentit" "Silence gives consent"
Accordingly, Mr. Vera's and Mr. Cummings' silence on this matter bespeaks their agreement with it.
Barr's email to his HBGary associates, like many others sent from his hbgary.com account, bears a valid digital signature, made with an S/MIME Class 1 Individual Signing Certificate purchased by Mr. Barr from VeriSign in April 2010. The existence of this valid digital signature authenticates this email beyond a reasonable doubt. It is provable therefore as neither a forgery, nor tampered with.
All the above activities raise a number of issues:
* By Mr. Barr's own admission he was ripping-off images of young girls from their MySpace pages, and using them as bait.
I regard the idea of a grown man (who is NOT a law-enforcement officer) skulking about in teenage chatrooms impersonating underage girls to be creepy, to put it mildly. This goes double, especially since (by his own admission) he's apparently using stolen images of real underage-appearing females as part of it.
One is led to wonder, is he using other stolen identity information as well?
* He describes himself as "Naughty Vicky" and states that he has some "… pictures please don't spread them though ok as don't want the whole world seeing them…"
I believe his intent here is to make his victims' (as he calls them) believe:
1) That he is a "naughty" underage female; and
2) That he has some photos, which he is willing to share, which are implied to be of an obscene and/or sexually-explicit nature.
Now, according to the so-called pandering' provisions of the currently-in-force American child pornography statute: 18 USC 2252(A)(3)(B), it is an offence to:
… knowingly … advertise … any material or purported material in a manner … that is intended to cause another to believe, that the material or purported material is, or contains
(i) an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or
(ii) a visual depiction of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct;
It appears to me that Mr. Barr intends his victims' (as he refers to them) to believe that the images he is purporting to send them contain sexually-explicit images of a minor, thus rendering him potentially liable to both prosecution and conviction under Title 18 USC 2252(a)(3)(B). (i) an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or
(ii) a visual depiction of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct;
Whether in fact the images are sexually-explicit images of a minor or not, is totally irrelevant, for the purposes of this statute. It doesn't matter whether any such images even exist or not all that matters is that the recipient believe that these purported images being offered are:
1) of a minor; and
2) are sexually-explicit in nature.
The fact that Mr. Barr apparently intended to infect his victims' machines with a keylogger, virus or remote-access trojan (RAT) only underscores his belief that the victims' who took up his offer are/were pedophiles sexually interested in underage girls.
Finally, regardless of his motivations, it is a clear violation of any number of computer-crime statutes to attempt to install keyloggers/viruses/ trojans, whether or not carried out across state lines.
Mr. Barr lives in McLean, Virginia. According to the laws of the State of Virginia, the following activities are prohibited by law:
§ 18.2-152.4. Computer trespass; penalty.
A. It shall be unlawful for any person, with malicious intent, to:
[...]
6. Use a computer or computer network to make or cause to be made an unauthorized copy, in any form, including, but not limited to, any printed or electronic form of computer data, computer programs or computer software residing in, communicated by, or produced by a computer or computer network;
7. [Repealed.]
8. Install or cause to be installed, or collect information through, computer software that records all or a majority of the keystrokes made on the computer of another without the computer owner's authorization; or
9. Install or cause to be installed on the computer of another, computer software for the purpose of (i) taking control of that computer so that it can cause damage to another computer …
B. … If a person installs or causes to be installed computer software in violation of this section on more than five computers of another, the offense shall be a Class 6 felony. If a person violates subdivision A 8, the offense shall be a Class 6 felony.
Here is the full text of the relevant section of the U.S. child pornography statute:
Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc...A000-.html
[Edit: Above link is broken, use this one instead] http://tinyurl.com/18usc2252a
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 110 > § 2252A
§ 2252A. Certain activities relating to material constituting or containing child pornography
(a) Any person who
(3) knowingly
(B) advertises, promotes, presents, distributes, or solicits through the mails, or using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including by computer, any material or purported material in a manner that reflects the belief, or that is intended to cause another to believe, that the material or purported material is, or contains
(i) an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or
(ii) a visual depiction of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct;
Text of Aaron Barr's email:
From: Aaron Barr
Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary=Apple-Mail-482-7348960; protocol="application/pkcs7-signature"; micalg=sha1
Subject: You can't protect stupid
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:17:39 -0400
Message-Id:
Cc: Ted Vera ,
Rich Cummings
To: Greg Hoglund
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1081)
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081)
[snip]
Night Hacker Online
Learning Python 2.6
******
HF l33t Posts: 121
Joined: Jun 2010
Reputation: 1
Hi all I have decided to create a quick basic straight to the point TUT on a bit of Social Engineering, this is something that I use and it's handy if you are using a free Public Crypter and it only leaves your server FUD for a small amount of time.
Ok so first things first I go straight to a chat room such as 321.com so sign up with a good name e.g. Naughty Vicky get a good photo to use from MySpace of a nice looking chick save it to your computer, also remember to leave your msn your using in the profile you create so the victims can simply add you from there. So now go to the Teen chat you will get about 20-30 boxes pop up with questions such as ASL please now just copy and paste this …
[N.B.: ASL refers to Age, Sex, Location]
They say ASL now just copy and paste it in each box you will have about 20 Victims asking you.
Hey there 16 straight and naughty ive got some nice pictures add me it's (put your email)
Copy this above ^ into the 321 in each Victims chat box then wait tell they add you on your msn
Copy and paste this into your victims msn chat from your fake msn when you have added them.
Hey heres the pictures please don't spread them though ok as don't want the whole world seeing them
also you might need to take your crappy Antivirus off as msn picks up everything enjoy TongueRemember as well don't bother chatting to them for ages it's pointless it only puts them off in the long run, my trick is to simply go from one to the next if they moan block them and move one. "Try to sound as legit as possible" by adding smiley faces Tongue etc. If you do this you seem more like a chick and that is what you want "
Well that is pretty much what I use for sniping my victims this is just a simply basic TUT for any new members that might be finding it hard to spread servers etc… Thumbsup
Aaron Barr
CEO
HBGary Federal Inc.
Once again, the original can be seen at: http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/aaron_hbgary_com/16436.html
Here is Greg Hoglund's response:
Delivered-To: aaron@hbgary.com
Received: by 10.224.36.193 with HTTP; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:10:50 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To:
References:
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:10:50 -0700
Message-ID:
Subject: Re: You can't protect stupid
From: Greg Hoglund
To: Aaron Barr
Cc: Ted Vera , Rich Cummings
001517503cc81020d8048b38ddc8
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=001517503cc81020d4048b38ddc7
001517503cc81020d4048b38ddc7
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Thats fucking brilliant.
-G
Once again, the original can be seen at: http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/aaron_hbgary_com/7853.html
http://crowdleaks.org/aaron-barr-pervert-or-vigilante/
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
