Scenarios

Source submission

Anonymous source submits over Tor; app encrypts and stores it.

5 open threats, highest risk 9 high · 30 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Journalist triage

Authenticated journalist browses and downloads encrypted submissions.

4 open threats, highest risk 6 medium · 20 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Transfer & decrypt Legacy (Tails/SVS)

Encrypted submission is carried to the SVS, decrypted and sanitized.

5 open threats, highest risk 8 high · 20 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Publish & export Legacy (Tails/SVS)

Sanitized output leaves the air-gap to the publishing area or print.

4 open threats, highest risk 6 medium · 13 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Admin access

Admin reaches both servers over SSH on authenticated Tor onions.

1 open threat, highest risk 6 medium · 6 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Monitoring & alerting

OSSEC watches the app server; encrypted alerts are mailed to admins.

4 open threats, highest risk 6 medium · 4 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Updates, time & DNS

App server reaches package/time/DNS services via the monitor gateway.

3 open threats, highest risk 9 high · 13 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Source discovery and OPSEC

How a source finds the instance and the pre-submission OPSEC surface.

10 open threats, highest risk 9 high · 34 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Supply chain and dependencies

Source code is built, signed, published, and installed on the servers.

6 open threats, highest risk 9 high · 36 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Workstation lifecycle and backups Legacy (Tails/SVS)

Physical/lifecycle threat surface of the admin and journalist Tails devices.

14 open threats, highest risk 9 high · 34 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Physical and host layer

Host/OS and physical room surface.

11 open threats, highest risk 9 high · 23 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Corporate and legal zone

News-org corporate/personal environment and legal exposure (largely out of scope).

4 open threats, highest risk 2 low · 8 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Workstation: reading submissions

A journalist downloads, decrypts and opens submissions on the SecureDrop Workstation.

25 open threats, highest risk 6 medium · 54 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Workstation: export and print

A journalist exports a submission to a USB drive or prints it.

17 open threats, highest risk 6 medium · 31 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram

Workstation: boot, provisioning and updates

The workstation boots, is provisioned by an administrator, and keeps its VMs updated.

12 open threats, highest risk 9 high · 39 threats in all

Data Flow Diagram
Sequence Diagram