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The document dump — a coup for the group but a serious blow to the C.I.A. — included instructions for compromising various commonly used computer tools, and then using them to spy: the online calling service Skype; Wi-Fi networks; PDF documents; and even commercial antivirus programs of the kind used by millions of people to protect their computers.

The breach, known as the Vault 7 leak, caused “catastrophic” damage to national security, the government said.

Investigators scrambled to find the culprit, and the trail eventually led to Mr. Schulte, a computer engineer for the agency who had helped create hacking tools as a coder at C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va.

There, according to the government, Mr. Schulte and his team of elite programmers worked in a secret building protected by armed guards, designing, among other things, malware that targeted the computers of suspected terrorists.

F.BI. agents searched Mr. Schulte’s Manhattan apartment a week after WikiLeaks released the first of the C.I.A. documents, and then prevented him from flying to Mexico on vacation, according to court records and relatives. In June 2018, he was charged with being at the center of the breach.

When it published the information, WikiLeaks said the source hoped to raise “policy questions that need to be debated in public, including whether the C.I.A.’s hacking capabilities exceeded its mandated powers.”