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Would it be crazy to say sitting on exploits is effectively "inserting a backdoor"? Maybe it doesn't have a doormat but it certainly still grants you access.

Would it be crazy to say sitting on exploits is effectively "inserting a backdoor"? Maybe it doesn't have a doormat but it certainly still grants you access. To me this would seem against the mission statement of protecting national security when a whole list of them are published, like now... EDIT: I would agree that without intent to gain access, it's not inserting a backdoor.

travmatt 9y ago
>Would it be crazy to say sitting on exploits is effectively "inserting a backdoor" That seems intentionally dishonest, no? If I disagree with a position I'm not justified in intentionally misrepresenting it because I feel morally correct. Unless you're alleging that these vulnerabilities were intentionally placed there, I don't understand why you'd feel the need to say that. Worrying about the effects of stockpiling vulnerabilities seems like a defensible position in and of itself.
kalmari 9y ago
its a 0day. a bug not intentional. the effect is the same but can and ussually does get fixed(whether timely or not is another thing).
willstrafach 9y ago
Hard to say, that is much more of moral argument rather than one you could argue much based on fact. Part of the NSA's job is signals intelligence, so they specifically find the vulnerabilities as a means of access. And if that were not the case, they would not have spent the time finding the vulnerabilities, so those 0-days would still exist and be potential attack vectors regardless.