WikiLeaks has released a new set of documents from its Vault 7 dump called ‘Dark Matter,’ which it claims confirms that the Central Intelligence Agency has been spying on Apple devices for roughly a decade.

The documents in the leak suggest the CIA has been bugging iPhones since at least 2008 – just a year after they were first released – and Mac computers starting even before that.

According to WikiLeaks, the documents reveal the CIA has designed malware to infect 'factory fresh iPhones,' and a bug that persists in Apple Macs even if the operating system is re-installed.

But, Apple says the vulnerabilities discussed in the leak have long been fixed, and the firm continues to work as 'defenders of our users' security and privacy.'

WikiLeaks has released a new set of documents called Vault 7 ‘Dark Matter,’ which it claims confirms that the Central Intelligence Agency has been spying on Apple devices for roughly a decade

WHAT WIKILEAKS CLAIMS The new leak reveals a slew of documents that suggest the CIA has been targeting Apple devices for roughly a decade. Program called NightSkies reached version 1.2 by 2008 - just a year after the iPhone was released - and is designed to be installed in 'factory fresh iPhones.' Malware designed for Mac computers, both laptops and desktop, can persist ‘even if you throw away your hard drive and reinstall your operating system.’ The release also reveals documents on the ‘Triton’ malware for MacOSX, including an infector called ‘Dark Mallet,’ and an EFI persistent version called ‘DerStake.’ While DerStarke 1.4 dates back to 2013, the other documents show that the CIA continued to rely on these systems as recently as 2016, and continues to update them as they work on the production of DerStarke 2.0, according to WikiLeaks. Advertisement

The documents demonstrate the CIA’s use of EFI/UEFI and firmware malware on Apple Mac devices, according to WikiLeaks.

‘That means that this is a malware technique developed by the CIA to insert its malware and viruses into people’s computer systems, Macintosh computer systems, which doesn’t store itself on the regular hard drive that people use,’ WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange said in a press conference live-streamed on Periscope today.

Instead, according to Assange, it will persist ‘even if you throw away your hard drive and reinstall your operating system.’

The leak also includes the manual for a program called ‘NightSkies 1.2,’ which is a ‘beacon/loader/implant tool’ for the iPhone.

NightSkies had reached version 1.2 by 2008, suggesting it had been in development for some time before that.

And, the program is 'expressly designed' to be physically installed in ‘factory fresh iPhones,’ Assange said.

This, in essence, means ‘the CIA has been infecting the iPhone supply chain of its targets since at least 2008,’ WikiLeaks claims.

According to the document, the NightSkies implant would allow the phone to act as a beacon, transmitting information to a ‘listening post.’

It would also enable the listening post to receive and execute commands, and even transfer files.

But, Apple says the problem only affected iPhone 3Gs, and was fixed in 2009.

Along with this, the firm says the Mac vulnerabilities have been fixed since 2013.

'We have preliminarily assessed the Wikileaks disclosures from this morning,’ Apple said in a statement to Dailymail.com.

‘Based on our initial analysis, the alleged iPhone vulnerability affected iPhone 3G only and was fixed in 2009 when iPhone 3GS was released.

‘Additionally, our preliminary assessment shows the alleged Mac vulnerabilities were previously fixed in all Macs launched after 2013.’

WikiLeaks also revealed a program from 2012 called ‘Sonic Screwdriver,’ which the CIA document describes as ‘mechanism for executing code on peripheral devices while a Mac laptop or desktop is booting.’

This means the attacker can implement the software from a USB stick, cracking into the device ‘even when a firmware password is enabled.’

The documents also reveal a project called ‘DarkSeaSkies,’ which dates back to 2009 and is used to infect the EFI firmware of an Apple MacBook Air computer.

Along with this, it describes an earlier version of the iPhone-targeting Nightskies program, Nightskies 1.1.

But at the time, they wrote that it ‘does not have stealth and persistence capabilities.’

APPLE'S RESPONSE TO THE LEAK 'We have preliminarily assessed the Wikileaks disclosures from this morning,’ Apple said in a statement to Dailymail.com ‘Based on our initial analysis, the alleged iPhone vulnerability affected iPhone 3G only and was fixed in 2009 when iPhone 3GS was released. ‘Additionally, our preliminary assessment shows the alleged Mac vulnerabilities were previously fixed in all Macs launched after 2013. ‘We have not negotiated with Wikileaks for any information. We have given them instructions to submit any information they wish through our normal process under our standard terms. ‘Thus far, we have not received any information from them that isn’t in the public domain. ‘We are tireless defenders of our users' security and privacy, but we do not condone theft or coordinate with those that threaten to harm our users.’ Advertisement

‘DarkSeaSkies’ is made up of a number of implants for the computers, including EFI, kernel-space and user-space implants known as ‘DarkMatter,’ ‘SeaPea,’ and ‘NightSkies,’ respectively.

The release also reveals documents on the ‘Triton’ malware for MacOSX, including an infector called ‘Dark Mallet,’ and an EFI persistent version called ‘DerStake.’

‘By using the EFI method, the CIA is able to keep Triton embedded into Apple products across updates,’ Assange said in the press conference.

The documents show DerStarke 1.4 dates back to 2013.

But, according to WikiLeaks, the other documents show that the CIA continued to rely on these systems as recently as 2016, and continues to update them as they work on the production of DerStarke 2.0.

Apple has run preliminary analyses on the claims, and says they've instructed WikiLeaks to submit their information based on their firm's standard process.

According to WikiLeaks, the documents reveal the CIA has designed malware to infect 'factory fresh iPhones,' and a bug that persists in Apple Macs even if the operating system is re-installed. A stock image is pictured

WIKILEAKS' VAULT 7 DUMP REVEALS CIA HACKING SECRETS On March 7, WikiLeaks published thousands of documents that claimed to reveal top CIA hacking secrets, including its ability to break into encrypted apps. This includes Whatsapp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloakman. The leak claims the CIA can bypass these apps’ encryption by hacking the smartphones they run on. According to WikiLeaks, the Vault 7 dump is the most comprehensive release of US spying files ever made public. It purportedly includes 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina. The documents reveal CIA-developed software intended to hack iPhones, Android phones, smart TVs and Microsoft, Mac and Linux operating systems. According to WikiLeaks, some of these remote hacking programs can turn these electronic devices into recording and transmitting stations to spy on their targets. Advertisement

‘We have not negotiated with Wikileaks for any information. We have given them instructions to submit any information they wish through our normal process under our standard terms,' Apple continued, in a statement to Dailymail.com.

‘Thus far, we have not received any information from them that isn’t in the public domain.

‘We are tireless defenders of our users' security and privacy, but we do not condone theft or coordinate with those that threaten to harm our users.’

The document also claims that the CIA may use these types of attacks to infect systems in the custody of a particular target, or to infect a targeted organizations’ supply chain.

‘You shouldn’t think of CIA malware as simply one program that is one little virus that connects to a system and does one job,’ Assange said in the conference.

‘In fact, there is effectively a malware ecology that is being developed by the Central Intelligence Agency over the last decade, with many different interacting components.’