Episode
03 August 2021 Official episode · Official transcript
advanced persistent threat
Nicole Perlroth discusses the zero-day exploit market, government acquisition and use of offensive cyber capabilities, the historical development of US exploitation programs, and the risks created when governments retain undisclosed vulnerabilities.
Topics: Zero-day exploit brokerage and vulnerability markets, Government acquisition and stockpiling of offensive cyber capabilities, Vulnerability disclosure and bug-bounty programs, Nation-state cyber-espionage, Exploit reliability, fuzzing, and click-and-shoot offensive tools, Supply-chain and trusted software-update-channel abuse, Cryptographic standards and weak random-number generators, NSA exploitation programs and external contractors, Hardware implants and electromagnetic keystroke capture, Public disclosure of state-held exploits and downstream cyber risk, Worm propagation and destructive malware impact
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Nicole Perlroth MEMBER_OF The New York Times
Nicole Perlroth identifies herself as a cybersecurity and digital espionage reporter at The New York Times.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“I am Nicole Perlroth and I am a cyber-security and digital espionage reporter at The New York Times.”
Beijing Summer Intern TARGETS The New York Times
The attacker nicknamed the Beijing Summer Intern entered The New York Times systems and searched for sources.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“we watched the guy we called the Beijing Summer Intern roll into our systems at 10:30 in the morning Beijing time and roll out at 4:30 or 5:00 PM Beijing time in search of our sources”
Beijing Summer Intern ASSOCIATED_WITH China
The attack was connected to China, but Nicole says it was still unknown whether the actor was the Chinese military or a contractor.
Uncertain Confidence 91% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“the Chinese military – we actually still don’t know if it was the military or a contractor – hacked The New York Times”
Nicole Perlroth USES Signal
Nicole says she sometimes uses Signal for sensitive conversations with sources.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“If I have to, I’ll use Signal, the encrypted messaging app”
zero-day exploit EXPLOITS software vulnerability
Jack defines a zero-day exploit as a working exploit involving a software vulnerability unknown to the software maker.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 98 Details
“A zero-day exploit is basically a vulnerability in software that the makers of that software don’t know exists yet.”
zero-day exploit AFFECTS iOS
Nicole reports that the going rate for a zero-day exploit capable of remotely entering iOS software was $2.5 million or more.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“the going rate for a zero-day exploit that gets you into an iPhone’s IOS software remotely is $2.5 million”
Microsoft USES bug bounty
Microsoft began offering bug bounties to hackers who reported vulnerabilities.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“They started improving their security and offering bug bounties to hackers who brought this code to them.”
Apple USES bug bounty
Apple eventually offered a bug bounty, although Nicole says it could not match government prices.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“Apple was one of the last companies, major companies, in Silicon Valley to start offering a bug bounty”
Crowdfense ASSOCIATED_WITH zero-day exploit
Crowdfense is described as a broker offering millions of dollars for a zero-day capability targeting iOS remotely.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“I found one broker in researching the book called Crowdfense that now offers even more than that; they offered $3 million for that same capability”
Project Gunman INVOLVES National Security Agency
Project Gunman was an investigation kicked off by the NSA into suspected Soviet surveillance of US embassy communications.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 98 Details
“This investigation was kicked off by the NSA and was code-named the Gunman Project.”
Project Gunman INVOLVES typewriter magnetic recording implant
Project Gunman involved finding a sophisticated typewriter implant containing a tiny magnetometer and recording equipment.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“what they found in that coil was the most sophisticated exploit that we had ever seen. It was a tiny magnetometer”
Tailored Access Operations PART_OF National Security Agency
Tailored Access Operations is described as the NSA's hacking unit.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“the top hackers within Tailored Access Operations, the NSA’s hacking unit”
National Security Agency USES zero-day exploit
The NSA later added budget to buy exploit capabilities from outside sources and is said to have purchased vulnerabilities externally.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“there was a line item added to their black budget, and it wasn’t very big; it was something like $25.1 million to buy these capabilities in 2013. We know that they have purchased these vulnerabilities from the outside.”
Missile Defense Agency USES zero-day exploit
A zero-day seller told Nicole that the Missile Defense Agency bought zero-day exploits.
Attributed Confidence 91% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“the Missile Defense Agency I learned played in this market. I had never heard of the Missile Defense Agency until someone who sells zero-day exploits told me that they sold to the Missile Defense Agency”
Central Intelligence Agency USES zero-day exploit
The CIA is listed among agencies participating in the market for privately developed zero-day exploits.
Attributed Confidence 87% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“agencies like the CIA ... were trying to play the NSA’s game but didn’t have the same talent pool in-house”
Flame USES Microsoft software update mechanism
Flame exploited Microsoft's software update mechanism while targeting Iranian systems.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“That utilized – that exploited the Microsoft software update mechanism”
Nicole says Flame may have been a precursor to Stuxnet, while presenting the relationship as uncertain.
Uncertain Confidence 90% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“We discovered Flame, which we believe was maybe the precursor to Stuxnet”
Flame is presented as possibly Israeli, possibly US-Israeli, or possibly solely US; the attribution is not resolved.
Uncertain Confidence 78% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“that was either US-Israeli or just US or just Israeli”
NotPetya USES zero-day exploit
The NotPetya attack used the exploit code that had been held by the NSA and later dumped online by the Shadowbrokers.
Explicit Confidence 94% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“It was used in a NotPetya attack”
National Security Agency EXPLOITS weak random number generator
The NSA was able to break through a weak random number generator and allegedly pushed that vulnerable system into commercial products.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“the NSA knew that there was a – that the NSA could break through this essentially weak random number generator”
RSA ASSOCIATED_WITH weak random number generator
A Reuters report indicated that the NSA might have paid RSA to incorporate weak random number generators into security products; Nicole says what happened remains unclear.
Uncertain Confidence 89% · Nicole Perlroth EP 98 Details
“it appeared that the NSA might have actually been paying RSA to bake these weak number generators into some of their security products”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T07:12:15.684596+00:00