Is The Market For Security Vulnerabilities A Good Thing?

from the government's-open-for-business dept

Mon, Jun 4th 2007 9:36am — Mike Masnick

It used to be that security researchers would often reveal security vulnerabilities as a way to build their name and get some attention. However, with so many cases of that backfiring and having the messenger blamed, it appears that the growing trend is for those who find vulnerabilities to simply sell them for thousands of dollars -- with the U.S. government being a prominent purchaser. Researchers can also sell the vulnerabilities to security companies or (of course) questionable black market contacts -- though, most ethical security researchers want to make sure whoever they sell the vulnerability to is going to inform the company that makes the software. Of course, the whole concept of "selling vulnerabilities" seems vaguely extortionist, as the implicit threat is that if the government doesn't buy it, the researcher always could sell it to those with less than noble intentions. At the same time, though, it is odd to hear security researchers complain that it's tough to sell to the government because it's not easy to find the right contacts -- as if the government buyers should more readily advertise themselves.

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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2007 @ 9:50am

The real problem with this is only: what used to be a noble, academic pursuit is not sullied with the taint of money and lower motives. OK Fine, if thats how its going to be (as it inevitably must) then let us deal with it appropriately--clear and unambiguous bug bounties. Without that degree of certainty, those who feel as if theyre entitled to a bounty will get it, one way or another--thus the extortion.

That will hold us for a while until the value of these exploits gets bid way up. Heres to hoping the supply of bugs can continue to expand and keep prices low.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2007 @ 11:16am

What's to stop them from selling to both the government and the black market, I know I would.. double dip the pen in both ink wells.
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2007 @ 11:39am
  
  Re:
  Honour among hackers, my friend. Professional standards. Industrial hacking is respectable, as is friendly whitehat hacking for government. Betraying both will be appreciated by neither.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2007 @ 1:10pm

Honour amoung hackers. Tell the Estonians about it...
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2007 @ 2:00pm

There's an interesting paper on this very problem that just got published in one of the Yale Law School journals: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=960239
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2007 @ 12:32am

Makes me wonder about all the ones sold exclusively to Uncle Sam. What sort of spying is being perpetrated against ordinary citizens? "Magic Lantern" is just the beginning.
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