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Acid Cryptofiler is a cryptographic software program designed by the department for "control of information" (Centre d'Electronique de l'Armement) of the French General Directorate of Armament (Direction générale de l'armement).[1][2][3] It is an online storage service.[4][contradictory] The software is now manufactured by ACID Technologies (France).[2]
| Original author(s) | Centre d'Electronique de l'Armement |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | ACID Technologies (France) |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Type | Cryptography |
History
editAcid Cryptofiler is on a list of cryptographic software approved for usage by the European Union and by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,[2][5] and is known to have been used by those organizations as well as by the European Parliament and European Commission since the summer of 2011.[6] It was approved for usage in the EU, in version V7, on 29 September 2011.[2]
In January 2013, as the Red October campaign was being discovered, researchers noted that the malware particularly targeted documents with .acid extensions, referring to documents processed by Acid Cryptofiler,[2][6][4] including the file extensions acidcsa, acidsca, aciddsk, acidpvr, acidppr, and acidssa.[7]
Overview
editAcid Cryptofiler is based on the integration of government cryptographic libraries, including a CCSD API (CCSD means "Defense Security Cryptographic Layers"). It offers the following functions:
- Asymmetric encryption (cf. public-key cryptography) in archive format (multi-file, multi-recipient) called Acid Archives.
- Volume encryption (containers) in symmetric mode and asymmetric mode.
Acid Cryptofiler is delivered with a directory function to file public keys, that is compliant with LDAP and Active Directory.
A bunch file contains all public keys held by a user. A user can belong to different cryptographic domains (a domain is a CCSD library and a set of cryptographic parameters). Private keys are also stored in a bunch file.
The keys are generated by a centralized office under the responsibility of the chief information security officer. Before a user is given a key (or a pair of keys), he/she must be trusted by the centralized office.[citation needed] In France, Acid Cryptofiler does not fit for defense classified information.[3][verification needed]
Acid Cryptofiler was designed and developed by two military engineers of[citation needed] the Direction générale de l'armement.[3] It has been delivered since 1999 (version 4, 5, and 7).[citation needed]. It runs on Microsoft Windows.[3] The software is classified.[8]
According to a book by Gérald Bronner, Acid Cryptofiler was so slow that sending an email took 10 minutes.[9][unreliable source?]
References
edit- ^ "CNRS Sécurité informatique n°11 march 2011" (PDF) (in French). March 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 15, 2012. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Zetter, Kim (14 January 2013). "Cybersleuths Uncover 5-Year Spy Operation Targeting Governments, Others". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^ a b c d Pierre, BARTHELEMY; Robert, ROLLAND; Pascal, VERON (2012-04-16). Cryptographie: principes et mises en œuvre / 2ème édition revue et augmentée (in French). Lavoisier. ISBN 978-2-7462-8816-4.
- ^ a b Valeriano, Brandon; Maness, Ryan C. (2015-04-27). Cyber War versus Cyber Realities: Cyber Conflict in the International System. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-020480-8.
- ^ "List of approved cryptographic products (LACP) for protecting EU Classified Information (EUCI)" (PDF). data.consilium.europa.eu. 5 July 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-09-06. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^ a b Storm, Darlene (2013-01-14). "Red October 5-year cyber espionage attack: Malware resurrects itself". Computerworld. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
- ^ "Unknown hackers stealing EU files for past five years". EUobserver. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
- ^ Walker, Danielle (15 January 2013). ""Red October" spy campaign uncovered, rivals Flame virus". Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^ Bronner, Gérald (2019-03-20). Déchéance de rationalité: Les tribulations d'un homme de progrès dans un monde devenu fou (in French). Grasset. ISBN 978-2-246-81281-4.