A forensics tool built by Microsoft exclusively for law enforcement officials worldwide was posted to a file-sharing site, leaving the USB-based tool at risk of falling into the wrong hands.

COFEE is a free, USB-based set of tools, which Microsoft offers only to law enforcement, that plugs into a computer to gather evidence during an investigation. It lets an officer with little or no computer know-how use digital forensics tools to gather volatile evidence.

COFEE was posted, and then later removed, from at least one file-sharing site, but security experts say the cat is now out of the bag. While many forensics tools with similar functionality as Microsoft's Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) are available, security experts still worry the bad guys will use their access to the tool to figure out ways to circumvent it.

Chris Wysopal, CTO at Veracode, says the danger is that a detection tool will be written for COFEE so that the bad guys can cover their tracks. "Someone will build a detector so that machines will wipe themselves or give rootkit-like fake answers if this USB is inserted into a computer," Wysopal says.

One researcher who got a copy of COFEE online says bad guys could abuse the tool by taking one of its DLLs and loading it into a compromised machine's memory, where it then dumps stored clear-text passwords to a file.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Sophos, says while there are plenty of tools that perform similar tasks to COFEE, it's not very likely to be abused for nefarious purposes. But, "that can't be ruled out," he says.

Cluley is more concerned about criminals learning the inner workings of COFEE. The real danger is if they can "determine if it is being run on one of their PCs and take precautionary steps to prevent the computer crime community from finding out what they've been up to," he says.

said by SUMware :

So Microsoft is helping the Feds investigate suspects who run Windows, to the exclusion of all others.

said by jaykaykay :

All I can say is more's the pity. Nothing is sacred any more and for an oldie such as myself and that leaves me wondering what our children etc. will have to contend with. "The real danger is if they can, criminals learning the inner workings of COFEE can determine if it is being run on one of the PCs of those in law enforcement and take precautionary steps to prevent the computer crime community from finding out what they've been up to, is really bothersome to even if one doesn't know anyone personally in law enforcement. Who's chasing whom?

said by Roger :

You definitely have heard of COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor) which we make freely available to Law Enforcement through Interpol and NW3C. Now, the probably unavoidable happened and the tool leaked to the Internet. There was actually an interesting statement by ArsTechnica yesterday: Chances are you won't have any use for the tool, but pirates get a thrill from having something they shouldn't, and a forensics tool only distributed to police departments around the world is pretty high up on the list of things you shouldn't have on your computer.

To make our point clear, let me quote Richard Boscovich, senior attorney, Internet Safety at Microsoft Corporation:

We have confirmed that unauthorized and modified versions of Microsoft’s COFEE tool have been improperly posted to bit torrent networks for public download. We strongly recommend against downloading any technology purporting to be COFEE outside of authorized channels – both because any unauthorized technology may not be what it claims to be and because Microsoft has only granted legal usage rights for our COFEE technology for law enforcement purposes for which the tool was designed.

Note that contrary to reports, we do not anticipate the possible availability of COFEE for cybercriminals to download and find ways to ‘build around’ to be a significant concern. COFEE was designed and provided for use by law enforcement with proper legal authority, but is essentially a collection of digital forensic tools already commonly used around the world. Its value for law enforcement is not in secret functionality unknown to cybercriminals, its value is in the way COFEE brings those tools together in a simple and customizable format for law enforcement use in the field.

In cooperation with our partners, we will continue to work to mitigate unauthorized distribution of our technology beyond the means for which it’s been legally provided and, again, would strongly discourage people from downloading unauthorized versions of the tool. As always, law enforcement wishing to use COFEE can safely get the latest released version of the tool free of charge through the established channels with both NW3C and INTERPOL by contacting NW3C at www.nw3c.org or INTERPOL at cofee [at] interpol.int.

So, to be clear: It is not “only” illegal but it is modified as well. Do you really want to install that?

said by caffeinator :

Well, I like coffee...

I'd rather have a copy of EnCase, personally...