In yet another release from its controversial Vault 7 series, WikiLeaks leaked technical details about a variant of spyware codenamed Athena, developed by the CIA and a private company. The attacker can remotely access an infected computer, introduce and/or execute malicious packages with specific functions, and take files without compromising their persistence in the operating system.
WannaCry was just a sample of what can happen when certain government agencies start accumulating exploits and payloads as if they were traditional weapons... and leave a door open. For years we have demanded more transparency from the main market companies regarding their collaboration with such agencies, and after WannaCry, the pressure is felt more than ever. However, the detail of whether those corporations decide to speak or not pales in comparison to the cyberarsenal that authorities keep in the name of national security, and other similar expressions. It is only a matter of time before a new global campaign hits ordinary users, so our best defense is to obtain as much information as possible about these weapons. That is when WikiLeaks steps in with its Vault 7 publications, and the latest entry bears the name Athena.
Athena in Detail
Athena is an implant with the ability to affect all major versions of Windows, starting from XP. Its creation is the responsibility of the CIA, but apparently that agency joined forces with a private company called Siege Technologies (now under the wing of Nehemiah Security), which provides cybersecurity solutions and offensive cyberwarfare technologies. Athena gives an attacker remote connectivity with the infected computer, dynamic configuration changes, execution of specific tasks that can be loaded or unloaded from memory to leave no traces, and extraction or injection of files into a special folder. Athena runs in user space and persists within the system.
Although everything depends on the infection method used, Athena sounds like a real feast for malicious elements thinking about carrying out a ransomware campaign. The documentation shared by WikiLeaks is very extensive, and includes a user guide with more than 40 pages.
Official site: Official site:
