Google Chrome's transition to Manifest V3 has started and will make the life of ad blockers a lot harder.

Despite protests, Google is rolling out changes in the Chrome browser that make it harder for ad blockers to do their job.

Starting last Monday, June 3, 2024, Chrome Beta, Dev, and Canary channels will see the effects of the implementation of the new extension platform Manifest V3. The gradual disabling of V2 extensions will later follow for all Chrome users.

For those not familiar with the terms, Manifest V2 and V3 are the “rules” that browser extension developers are required to follow if they want their extensions to get accepted into the Google Play Store.

Manifest V2 is the old model. The Chrome Web Store no longer accepts Manifest V2 extensions, but browsers can still use them. For now. Google explained that the goal of the new extension platform:

> “Is to protect existing functionality while improving the security, privacy, performance and trustworthiness of the extension ecosystem as a whole.”

That’s commendable, because it stops criminals from hiding the malicious intentions of their extensions when they submit them for the Google Play Store.

However, the part of the transition that hinders ad blockers lies in the fact that extensions will now have limitations on how many rules they include. Google has made some compromises after initial objections, but the limitations are still present and have a large effect on ad blockers since they historically rely on a large number of rules. That’s because, generally speaking, each blocked domain or subdomain is one rule, and cybercriminals set up new domains by the dozen.

Google has tried to address developers’ concerns by adding support for user scripts and increasing the number of rulesets for the API used by ad blocking extensions. But this might not be enough.

Users can temporarily re-enable their Manifest V2 extensions, but this option will eventually disappear.

One of the affected ad blockers is the one incorporated in our own Malwarebytes Browser Guard.

We talked to one of the developers about the plans for Browser Guard and how it will deal with the Manifest V3 rules. They told us that the new Browser Guard, which is already available in beta, will use a mix of static and dynamic rules to protect our users.

**Static rules** are rules that are contained in the ruleset files which can be seen as block lists. These files are declared in the manifest file.

**Dynamic rules** are rules that can be added and removed at runtime. Chrome allows up to 30k dynamic rules. Browser Guard uses dynamic rules for two purposes:

*   **Session rules** are dynamic rules that can be added and removed at runtime, but they are session-scoped and are cleared when the browser shuts down and when a new version of the browser is installed.
*   And dynamic rules can be used to store allow lists, user blocked content, and **general rules** that block more than one domain. Take, for example, the IP address of a server that is known to host nothing but phishing sites.

And, to deal with urgent situations, we can use ruleset overrides, which are a mechanism by which we can override the static rules shipped with Browser Guard without requiring our users to add exclusions.

If you want to help Malwarebytes get ready for the transition, you can test the beta version of Browser Guard for Manifest V3.

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 Google&#8217;s Chrome changes make life harder for ad blockers 

**According to the CVSS metric, user interaction is required (UI:R) and privileges required are none (PR:N). What does that mean for this vulnerability?**

An unauthorized attacker must wait for a user to initiate a connection.

CVE-2024-30097: Microsoft Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Windows Recall takes a screenshot every five seconds. Cybersecurity researchers say the system is simple to abuse—and one ethical hacker has already built a tool to show how easy it really is.

When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed the new Windows AI tool that can answer questions about your web browsing and laptop use, he said one of the “magical” things about it was that the data doesn’t leave your laptop; the Windows Recall system takes screenshots of your activity every five seconds and saves them on the device. But security experts say that data may not stay there for long.

Two weeks ahead of Recall’s launch on new Copilot+ PCs on June 18, security researchers have demonstrated how preview versions of the tool store the screenshots in an unencrypted database. The researchers say the data could easily be hoovered up by an attacker. And now, in a warning about how Recall could be abused by criminal hackers, Alex Hagenah, a cybersecurity strategist and ethical hacker, has released a demo tool that can automatically extract and display everything Recall records on a laptop.

Dubbed TotalRecall—yes, after the 1990 sci-fi film—the tool can pull all the information that Recall saves into its main database on a Windows laptop. “The database is unencrypted. It’s all plain text,” Hagenah says.⁩ Since Microsoft revealed Recall in mid-May, security researchers have repeatedly compared it to spyware or stalkerware that can track everything you do on your device. “It’s a Trojan 2.0 really, built in,” Hagenah says, adding that he built TotalRecall—which he’s releasing on GitHub—in order to show what is possible and to encourage Microsoft to make changes before Recall fully launches.

The company unveiled Recall as part of a Surface laptop event last month. The tool continuously takes screenshots of whatever’s happening on your PC. Recall is intended to allow people to “retrieve” things you’ve done on your machine—whether it’s web pages you’ve visited or messages you’ve been sent—using natural language search queries. Microsoft’s description of the tool says Recall could be used to search for recipes you’ve looked at online but whose websites you’ve forgotten.

TotalRecall, Hagenah says, can automatically work out where the Recall database is on a laptop and then make a copy of the file, parsing all the data as it does so. While Microsoft’s new Copilot+ PCs aren’t out yet, it’s possible to use Recall by emulating a version of the devices. “It does everything automatically,” he says. The system can set a date range for extracting the data—for instance, pulling information from only one specific week or day. Pulling one day of screenshots from Recall, which stores its information in an SQLite database, took two seconds at most, Hagenah⁩ says.

Included in what the database captures are screenshots of whatever is on your desktop—a potential gold mine for criminal hackers or domestic abusers who may physically access their victim’s device. Images include captures of messages sent on encrypted messaging apps Signal and WhatsApp, and remain in the captures regardless of whether disappearing messages are turned on in the apps. There are records of websites visited and every bit of text displayed on the PC. Once TotalRecall has been deployed, it will generate a summary about the data; it is also possible to search for specific terms in the database.

Hagenah⁩ says an attacker could get a huge amount of information about their target, including insights into their emails, personal conversations, and any sensitive information that’s captured by Recall.

Hagenah’s work builds on findings from cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont, who has detailed how much information Recall captures and how easy it can be to extract it. Beaumont also says he has built a website where a Recall database can be uploaded and instantly searched. He says he hasn’t released the site yet, to allow Microsoft time to potentially change the system. “InfoStealer trojans, which automatically steal usernames and passwords, are a major problem for well over a decade—now these can just be easily modified to support Recall,” Beaumont writes.

The criticisms come as hacks of Microsoft systems have led to various US government data breaches; Nadella has said security should be Microsoft’s “top priority.” Microsoft did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about the security features of Recall by the time of publication.

Recall’s privacy pages say it is possible to disable saving screenshots (effectively turning Recall off), pause the system temporarily, filter applications where screenshots are taken, and delete what is gathered at any time. Recall runs on the laptop itself, storing data it captures on the device and not sending this information to Microsoft’s servers. Hagenah⁩ says this claim appears to be true, with no signs that data is sent to Microsoft.

Microsoft is, at least, aware of some of the possible privacy and security-related issues with Recall: Its help pages say the system does not perform any content moderation on what is contained in the images it saves. This means, Microsoft says in the guide, that it won’t “hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers.” Security researchers have already been able to extract passwords from Recall.

Recall’s main database is stored on the laptop’s system directory, and while it needs administrator rights to access, privilege escalation attacks have been around for years, making it theoretically possible for an attacker to gain initial access to a device remotely.

Hagenah⁩ says that in cases of employers with “bring your own devices” policies, there’s a risk of someone leaving with huge volumes of company data saved on their laptops. That’s a particular risk if they’re disgruntled or leave on bad terms, he says. The UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, has asked Microsoft to provide more details about Recall and its privacy.

While Recall remains as a “preview” feature and, according to Microsoft’s small print, could change before it launches, Beaumont writes in his research that the company “should recall Recall and rework it to be the feature it deserves to be, delivered at a later date.” He adds: “They also need to review the internal decisionmaking that led to this situation, as this kind of thing should not happen.”

This Hacker Tool Extracts All the Data Collected by Windows’ New Recall AI

When a drug kingpin named Microsoft tried to seize control of an encrypted phone company for criminals, he was playing right into its real owners’ hands.

Inside the Biggest FBI Sting Operation in History

A scammer tried to seduce us by offering the credentials to an account that held roughly half a million dollars.

This weekend a scammer tried his luck by reaching out to me on WhatsApp. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, but trust me, it’s bad for your business.

I received one message from a number hailing from the Togolese Republic.

WhatsApp message from an unknow sender

> “Jay, your financial account has been added. Account Csy926. Password \[\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\] USDT Balance 1,660,086.50 EUR: 592,030.92 \[domain\] Keep it in a safe place.”

I asked them to send the message in English, pretending not to understand Dutch, but received no reply.

But since it was a rainy day and I’d never seen this type of WhatApp scam before, I decided to investigate.

Sometimes it takes some effort, especially when the domain is blocked for fraud by your favorite security software, but nothing was going to stop me now from looking for my new-found wealth.

Malwarebytes blocked the domain for fraud

To fully understand the message, it’s good to know that USTD stands for Tether, a cryptocurrency referred to as a stablecoin because its value is pegged to a flat currency. In the case of USTD the flat currency is the US dollar. The link makes a stablecoin’s value less volatile than that of other cryptocurrencies, which is attractive for traders that like to switch quickly between cryptocurrencies and flat currencies.

So, I visited the domain which, no surprise there, turned out to be a fake trading platform. I tried the login credentials which were so kindly provided to me.

Welcome to login

Once logged in I checked my wallet and lo and behold, I’m rich! (Or “Jay” is.)

Nice wallet

The wallet belongs to Csy926 who has VIP5 access and contains 1658670.31 USDT or $602,494.07.

I can either recharge, withdraw, or transfer my USDT tokens or transfer the cold hard cash in dollars. Knowing that in this type of scam the victim always has to invest a—relatively–small amount to get the bait, I knew what to expect.

The easiest way would have been if I could transfer the dollars to a bank account, so I tried that first.

Transfer form

Sadly, there were obstacles:

*   Transfers can only be done to other accounts on the platform and the recipient needs to be at least a VIP1 level.
*   Only VIP members can transfer without a key. Assuming Jay is the one with the key, it’s a good thing that the account has a VIP5 status.

So, to be a recipient of a US$ amount, I’ll need a VIP1 level account on the same platform.

Sadly, that’s not me. So I decided to see what I can do with the USDT tokens.

Withdraw form

The form shows a security tip warning users to fill in their withdrawal account accurately, as assets can’t be returned after transferring them out. That sucks for Jay.

But all in all, that looks promising, but again there are some problems.

*   I’ll need a TRC20 wallet. A TRC20 wallet app is an application, accessible on mobile/web or desktop devices, designed specifically for storing, managing, and engaging with TRC20 tokens.
*   Once I filled out the form and clicked on Withdraw, it turned out I needed a key.

Please enter KEY

Looks like it’s time to read the FAQs. Fortunately, this has the answers to all the “right” questions.

What should I do if I forget my KEY?

Long story short. You set the key when you open the account, and it cannot be retrieved. But…..if you have two VIP accounts you can transfer funds from the old account to your new account. And there is no need for a KEY if you have a VIP account. Considering Jay has a VIP5 account there lies an opportunity.

How to activate VIP?

And here comes the catch all of our regular readers saw coming by now, VIP accounts that are able to receive funds cost money. The cheapest—VIP1—requires a deposit of 50 USDT (roughly $50) which is not refundable and can’t be canceled. But with a VIP1 account I can only receive $30 per month and it’s only valid for 2 months. So, that’s not a big help when you are as rich as I am, sorry, Jay is.

VIP1 account is the lowest level and the cheapest

It would take me until the next ice age—4600 years—to transfer the entire amount at that rate, with the off chance that the rightful owner would drain the account or change the password as soon as they noticed the leak.

Any unsuspecting victim that has come this far and is willing to steal from the treasure dropped in their lap, now realizes that before they can enjoy all that money, they first:

1.  Need to open a new account.
2.  Make a deposit to turn it into a VIP account. The amount depends on their greed and impatience because the higher the VIP level, the larger the amount you can transfer in one day and per month.
3.  Transfer the funds from Jay’s account to their own account.
4.  Set up a TRC20 account.
5.  Withdraw the money from the new account to their TRC20 wallet.

We decided not to sponsor the scammers, so this is as far as we were willing to go, but we have a distinct feeling that along the steps we outlined there might be other fees and deposits needed.

**Don’t fall for scammers**

*   Any unsolicited WhatsApp message from an unknown person is suspect. No matter how harmless or friendly it may seem. Most pig butchering scams start with what seems a misdirected message.
*   Don’t follow links that reach you in any unexpected way, and certainly not from an untrusted source.
*   If it’s too good to be true, then it’s very likely not true.
*   Scammers bank on the fact that the more time and money you have invested, the more determined you will become to get to the desired end result.
*   Use a web filtering app to shield you from known malicious websites. Preferably Malwarebytes Premium or Malwarebytes Browser Guard.

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 WhatsApp cryptocurrency scam goes for the cash prize 

Sitefinity version 15.0 suffers from a persistent cross site scripting vulnerability.

    # Exploit Title: Sitefinity 15.0 - Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)# Date: 2023-12-05# Exploit Author: Aldi Saputra Wahyudi# Vendor Homepage: https://www.progress.com/sitefinity-cms# Version: < 15.0.0# Tested on: Windows/Linux# CVE : CVE-2023-27636# Description: In the backend of the Sitefinity CMS, a Cross-site scripting vulnerability has been discovered in all features that use SF-Editor# Steps To Reproduce:Attacker as lower privilegeVictim as Higher privilege1. Login as an Attacker2. Go to the function using the SF Editor, go to the news page as example3. Create or Edit news item4. On the content form, insert the XSS payload as HTML5. After the payload is inserted, click on the content form (just click) and publish or save6. If the victim visits the page with XSS payload, XSS will be triggeredPayload: <noalert><iframe src="javascript:alert(document.domain);">

Sitefinity 15.0 Cross Site Scripting

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-3530-03 - An update for kernel-rt is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions. Issues addressed include a use-after-free vulnerability.

    The following advisory data is extracted from:https://access.redhat.com/security/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_3530.jsonRed Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.- Packet Storm Staff====================================================================Red Hat Security AdvisorySynopsis:           Important: kernel-rt security and bug fix updateAdvisory ID:        RHSA-2024:3530-03Product:            Red Hat Enterprise LinuxAdvisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:3530Issue date:         2024-05-31Revision:           03CVE Names:          CVE-2023-52578====================================================================Summary: An update for kernel-rt is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions.Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.Description:The kernel-rt packages provide the Real Time Linux Kernel, which enables fine-tuning for systems with extremely high determinism requirements.Security Fix(es):* kernel: nf_tables: use-after-free vulnerability in the nft_verdict_init() function (CVE-2024-1086)* kernel: net: bridge: data races indata-races in br_handle_frame_finish() (CVE-2023-52578)Bug Fix(es):* kernel-rt: update RT source tree to the latest RHEL-8.4.z Batch 25 (JIRA:RHEL-36724)* [RHEL-8.4] kernel-rt-debug: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/rtmutex.c:968 (JIRA:RHEL-8758)For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.Solution:https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258CVEs:CVE-2023-52578References:https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#importanthttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2262126https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2267758

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-3530-03

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-3529-03 - An update for kernel is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions. Issues addressed include a use-after-free vulnerability.

    The following advisory data is extracted from:https://access.redhat.com/security/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_3529.jsonRed Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.- Packet Storm Staff====================================================================Red Hat Security AdvisorySynopsis:           Important: kernel security updateAdvisory ID:        RHSA-2024:3529-03Product:            Red Hat Enterprise LinuxAdvisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:3529Issue date:         2024-05-31Revision:           03CVE Names:          CVE-2023-52578====================================================================Summary: An update for kernel is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions.Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.Description:The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.Security Fix(es):* kernel: nf_tables: use-after-free vulnerability in the nft_verdict_init() function (CVE-2024-1086)* kernel: net: bridge: data races indata-races in br_handle_frame_finish() (CVE-2023-52578)For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.Solution:https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258CVEs:CVE-2023-52578References:https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#importanthttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2262126https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2267758

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-3529-03

Donald Trump has vowed to go after political enemies, undocumented immigrants, and others if he wins. Experts warn he could easily turn the surveillance state against his targets.

Every president of the United States has within their grasp the power of a vast surveillance state that has grown significantly over the past few decades and has beaten back any real effort to rein it in. Through America’s numerous enigmatic intelligence agencies, presidents possess the ability to dive deeply into the communications, movements, and relationships of everyday Americans. Presidents of both parties have abused the surveillance state, but under a second Trump administration, this power could be abused in ways it has never been before.

Donald Trump, a now convicted felon and the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has said he plans to prosecute his political opponents should he return to the White House. He’s said he would allow states to monitor pregnant women and prosecute those who seek abortions. Trump wants to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. He plans to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell civil unrest, which means sending the military into the streets. The much publicized Project 2025 outlines how he would quickly replace thousands of career civil servants in the federal government with loyalists.

If a president was interested in prosecuting their political opponents, crushing protests, targeting undocumented immigrants, and had the right people in place to help them carry out those plans, surveillance could become a valuable tool for accomplishing those goals. Like former US president Richard Nixon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Trump could use the surveillance powers available to him to monitor his political opponents, disrupt protest movements, and more.

Nixon and former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover famously surveilled the president’s political opponents and activists, including Martin Luther King Jr., through a program called COINTELPRO. One of the main goals of the program was to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” civil rights groups.

If he so desired, Trump could create his own version of this program, but he’d be working with much more advanced technology—and it’d be in a time when there are countless data points available on every American. Hoover could have only dreamed of a world where everyone was walking around with tracking devices.

“So much of what we depend on, in terms of the rule of law, depends on norms. When those norms are ignored, that’s when things start to fall apart,” says Jeffrey L. Vagle, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University. “Some of the norms, like prosecutorial discretion, might be eroded or disappear entirely. That could mean a number of things in terms of surveillance.”

Vagle says that if a second Trump administration wanted to defend its abuse of surveillance powers, it could stretch the use of national security as a justification for doing so. He says presidents have done this in the past in other ways.

“Administrations from both parties have invoked the term ‘national security’ and have used national security loopholes to justify surveillance and profiling,” says Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project. “They have too often used national security as a pretext for law enforcement to target Muslims, communities of color, and immigrants.”

Toomey says Trump has sent “mixed signals” when it comes to how he feels about surveillance, but he’s made it clear he plans to target his political opponents in various ways if he’s elected again.

“A second Trump administration could be disastrous for many of our most fundamental freedoms,” Toomey says.

The administration may not even need to come up with a justification for surveilling Americans without a warrant, because it could simply purchase scores of people's personal data. The federal government has been known to purchase data from private brokers in the past, and doing so doesn’t require a warrant.

“We are just awash in data, and data brokers can just collect and sell these data,” Vagle says. “Law enforcement or quasi-law enforcement can collect that information.”

Surveillance can be done in secret so that the people being surveilled don’t realize they’re being surveilled, or it can be done openly as a way to stifle free expression, Vagle says. The government might tell you they’re keeping an eye on people, and then you might be less likely to speak out.

“If you think you’re being watched, you act differently,” Vagle says. “You could see a Trump version of COINTELPRO—only maybe not so covert. They might be more open about it with the idea that it might chill speech.”

As for the abortion issue, some of what may occur will depend on the future legal status of abortion, which could involve a US Supreme Court decision or congressional action. A major change in its legal status would likely affect how the federal government approaches the issue. If it remains a state issue, the federal government wouldn’t typically get involved in how a state is implementing a law it’s passed, but that’s not to say it couldn’t. If a state wanted help tracking people who are crossing state lines for abortions, for example, the federal government could conceivably assist with that.

“The federal government is not in the business of enforcing state laws, but there are a lot of what-ifs. How crazy might a Trump administration be willing to be?” Vagle says.

Whether it’s monitoring political opponents, activists, immigrants, or pregnant people, there are many ways in which a second Trump administration could utilize surveillance powers to exert more control over the populace. If the FBI and the Department of Justice are staffed with people who won’t push back when Trump orders them to do things that might be legally or morally questionable, they may carry out his wishes, and Americans may discover how much their privacy rights have eroded over the years.

“One of the things about Project 2025 is that it’s clear that the Trump camp, and more broadly the Republican Party that’s behind Trump, want to make it a more organized presidency than his first presidency was,” Vagle says. “It would be very unsurprising if the Department of Justice and the FBI dismissed anyone if they even had a whiff of disloyalty.”

How Donald Trump Could Weaponize US Surveillance in a Second Term

In seemingly the first case of its kind, the US Justice Department has charged a Chinese national with using a drone to photograph a Virginia shipyard where the US Navy was assembling nuclear submarines.

The United States Department of Justice is quietly prosecuting a novel Espionage Act case involving a drone, a Chinese national, and classified nuclear submarines.

The case is such a rarity that it appears to be the first known prosecution under a World War II–era law that bans photographing vital military installations using aircraft, showing how new technologies are leading to fresh national security and First Amendment issues.

“This is definitely not something that the law has addressed to any significant degree,” Emily Berman, a law professor at the University of Houston who specializes in national security, tells WIRED. “There’s definitely no reported cases.”

On January 5, 2024, Fengyun Shi flew to Virginia while on leave from his graduate studies at the University of Minnesota and rented a Tesla at the airport. His research focused on using AI to detect signs of crop disease in photos. Shi’s subject that week wasn’t plants, however, but allegedly the local shipyards—the only ones manufacturing the latest generation of Navy carrier ships in the country, and nuclear submarines as well.

According to an affidavit filed by FBI special agent Sara Shalowitz in February, a shipyard security officer alerted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to Shi’s actions. The affidavit alleges that on January 6, Shi was flying a drone in “inclement weather” before it got stuck in a neighbor’s tree. When Shi, who is a Chinese citizen, approached the neighbor for help, he was questioned about his nationality and purpose for being in the area. The unnamed resident took photos of Shi, his license plate, and his ID, and called the police. The affidavit alleges that Shi was “very nervous” when questioned by police and “did not have any real reasons” for flying a drone in bad weather. The police gave Shi the number for the fire department and said he would need to stay on the scene. Instead, he returned the rental car an hour later and left Hampton Roads, Virginia, abandoning the drone.

When the FBI seized the drone and pulled the photos off its memory card, they discovered images that special agent Shalowitz said she recognized as being taken at Newport News Shipyard and BAE Systems, which is a 45-minute drive away. The affidavit states that on the day Shi took the photos, the Newport News Shipyard was “actively manufacturing” aircraft carriers and Virginia class nuclear submarines.

“Naval aircraft carriers have classified and sensitive systems throughout the carriers,” the affidavit states. “The nuclear submarines present on that date also have highly classified and sensitive Navy Nuclear Propulsion Information (‘NNPI’) and those submarines even in the design and construction phase are sensitive and classified.”

The DOJ is charging Shi with six Espionage Act misdemeanors under two statutes: one banning photographing a vital military installation and one banning the use of an aircraft to do so. Each misdemeanor can result in up to a year in prison upon conviction. While he awaits trial, Shi is restricted to living in Virginia under probation. He was forced to surrender his passport. According to court filings, he appears to require a translator.

Shi’s case, filed in federal court in Virginia’s Eastern District, was first spotted by Court Watch in February. Its rarity became apparent in March, after prosecutors filed a motion for a time extension. The judge agreed, writing that it was justified because the case is “so unusual due to the nature of the prosecution and the novel questions of both law and fact.”

Indeed, Shi is being charged “under two statutes which have been rarely prosecuted” to the degree that “the Court has been able to only find one reported case,” the judge wrote. That case, _Genovese v. Town of Southampton,_ centered on just one of the two statutes Shi is being charged under—photographing a military installation, without an aircraft.

The DOJ declined to comment when WIRED posed questions about Shi’s case, including whether the Chinese government is being engaged on the issue.

According to a filing from US prosecutors, both parties wish to end the case in a plea agreement. Shi’s attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

WIRED found multiple social media accounts connected to Shi. He appears to have a small online footprint and few interactions with others online, portraying a life of quiet normalcy. He appears to be a soccer fan who enjoys campus and is a devoted _League of Legends_ player. He even attended the competitive online game’s 2022 World Championship tournament in San Francisco. In fact, according to online records, he often plays _League of Legends_ multiple times a day while awaiting trial in Virginia. His university research is similarly innocuous: He’s developing an app for detecting crop diseases in photos called Gopher Eye, which is being funded by the National Science Foundation, and has applied for a patent. He describes himself as a “startup manager” on LinkedIn.

One of Shi’s colleagues at the University of Minnesota, who spoke to WIRED under the condition of anonymity, says that he was a “typical” kid who was “very passionate” about his research. In the fall of 2023, however, financial and familial strife compounded by mounting pressure from lagging grades led to a break. The colleague said that Shi soon all but disappeared, taking leave from his studies and “basically hiding from all of his normal relationships.” He’s been difficult to contact since then, they say, adding that they did not know that Shi is currently in the US—much less embroiled in a rare national security case.

“From my point of view, he’s had very bad luck,” they say. “I don’t think that he did anything wrong intentionally.”

The question of why the DOJ is prosecuting Shi in the first place looms large over his case. After all, satellites originating in China photograph the US daily, including military sites and aircraft carriers. The degree to which Shi’s nationality played a role in the DOJ’s decision to prosecute the case isn’t clear. The case is proceeding amid rising animosity between China and the US, but Shi isn’t being charged under any laws related to collecting intelligence for a foreign government. He is not being accused of acting as a spy. His only alleged crime is taking photos with a drone.

“The Justice Department has guidelines that say \[nationality\] is not supposed to play a role in a criminal investigation, but there are exceptions to that rule for national security and border-related investigations,” Berman says. “It certainly seems likely that the fact Shi is a Chinese national raises red flags for investigators that wouldn't necessarily go up in the same way if he was an American citizen, rightly or wrongly.”

Cases prosecuted under statutes banning photographing military bases can have implications for First Amendment rights, Berman says. Photographing in a public place is a constitutionally protected activity.

“It would be a good thing to litigate some of these cases and clarify what the rules actually are about what you can and can't do,” she says. “Any time there is uncertainty, that may make people hesitant to do things that they are constitutionally entitled to do.”

The few occasions where statutes banning photographing military installations have come up illustrate this concern. In _Genovese v. Town of Southampton,_ Nancy Genovese sued law enforcement officials who arrested her for photographing an airport—part of which was a military base—while having guns in her car. A jury agreed that law enforcement was maliciously prosecuting Genovese, and she landed a settlement amounting to more than $1 million in 2016. In another incident, in 2014, reporters for The Blade in Ohio filed a federal lawsuit after they were unlawfully detained for taking photos outside a military base. In that case, too, the law favored the plaintiffs, and the reporters were awarded $18,000.

Shi’s case is scheduled to start on June 20.

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