Journalist Tails workstation compromised by malware partially mitigated Legacy (Tails/SVS)

THREAT118 · Partially mitigated: Some controls are in place, but the risk is still too high. · Defined in catalog.py:2034

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

How statuses and scores work

An adversary could disclose all encrypted submissions accessible or retrieved on the journalist workstation. TOTP does prevent an attacker from disclosing ATHS keys and valid session cookies for the web application

Mitigations

Mitigation	Status
Tails is an amnesiac OS MITIG144 Legacy (Tails/SVS)	implemented
Use of airgapped SVS key MITIG10	implemented

Residual risk

Persistence is enabled.

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

Existing mitigations: Tails amnesiac property (MITIG144), physical airgap (MITIG10). Automated test for mitigation: No.

How this threat is matched

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