Journalist workstation Tails key tampered accepted Legacy (Tails/SVS)

THREAT116 · Accepted: The team has decided to live with this risk. · Defined in catalog.py:2001

Risk: High impact × Low likelihood = 6 medium
After mitigations: High impact × Low likelihood = 6 medium (unchanged)

How statuses and scores work

An adversary tampers the Journalist's Tails USB stick and inserts malware

Mitigations

No mitigations in place.

Possible further mitigations

Admin guide explains incident response when journalist tails key is tampered with / compromised MITIG143 Legacy (Tails/SVS) proposed

Residual risk

Candidate for further mitigation efforts

Where it applies

Applies to 1 component in 1 scenario.

Journalist Workstation (device) Legacy (Tails/SVS) Journalist Workstation (Tails)

Workstation lifecycle and backups Legacy (Tails/SVS) · Journalist Workstation (device)

digraph tm {
    graph [
        fontname = Arial;
        fontsize = 14;
    ]
    node [
        fontname = Arial;
        fontsize = 14;
    ]
    edge [
        fontname = Arial;
        fontsize = 12;
    ]
    nodesep = 1;

    subgraph cluster_boundary_Admin_Workstation__Tails_ {
        graph [
            fontsize = 10;
            fontcolor = black;
            style = dashed;
            color = firebrick2;
            label = <<i>Admin Workstation (Tails)</i>>;
        ]

        component_Admin_Workstation__device__Admin_Workstation__Tails_ [
            shape = circle;
            color = black;
            fontcolor = black;
            label = "Admin\nWorkstation\n(device)";
            URL = "component_Admin_Workstation__device_.html";
            tooltip = "Admin Workstation (device) (Legacy (Tails/SVS))";
            margin = 0.02;
            style = "dashed";
            class = "tagged";
        ]

    }

    subgraph cluster_boundary_Journalist_Workstation__Tails_ {
        graph [
            fontsize = 10;
            fontcolor = black;
            style = dashed;
            color = firebrick2;
            label = <<i>Journalist Workstation (Tails)</i>>;
        ]

        component_Journalist_Workstation__device__Journalist_Workstation__Tails_ [
            shape = circle;
            color = black;
            fontcolor = black;
            label = "Journalist\nWorkstation\n(device)";
            URL = "component_Journalist_Workstation__device_.html";
            tooltip = "Journalist Workstation (device) (Legacy (Tails/SVS))";
            margin = 0.02;

            style = "filled,dashed";

            fillcolor = "#c0392b";

            fontcolor = "white";

            class = "tagged highlighted";
        ]

    }

    actor_Administrator_ [
        shape = square;
        color = black;
        fontcolor = black;
        label = "Administrator";
        URL = "component_Administrator.html";
        tooltip = "Administrator";
        margin = 0.02;
    ]

    component_Backup___recovery_media_ [
        shape = circle;
        color = black;
        fontcolor = black;
        label = "Backup /\nrecovery media";
        URL = "component_Backup___recovery_media.html";
        tooltip = "Backup / recovery media";
        margin = 0.02;
    ]

    actor_Journalist_ [
        shape = square;
        color = black;
        fontcolor = black;
        label = "Journalist";
        URL = "component_Journalist.html";
        tooltip = "Journalist";
        margin = 0.02;
    ]

    actor_Administrator_ -> component_Admin_Workstation__device__Admin_Workstation__Tails_ [        color = black;        fontcolor = black;        dir = forward;        label = "1. Admin operates\nworkstation";    ]
    actor_Journalist_ -> component_Journalist_Workstation__device__Journalist_Workstation__Tails_ [        color = black;        fontcolor = black;        dir = forward;        label = "2. Journalist\noperates workstation";    ]
    component_Admin_Workstation__device__Admin_Workstation__Tails_ -> component_Backup___recovery_media_ [        color = black;        fontcolor = black;        dir = forward;        label = "3. Back up secrets";    ]
}

Notes

Further mitigations: Inform users to immediately discard existing key and change Journalist credentials should there be any doubt that the Journalist persistent volume (MITIG143). Automated test for mitigation: No.

How this threat is matched

Listed for these components. A boundary covers every component inside it.