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Honest question: is there any coordinated responder effort to use RCE vulns like this one to patch the vuln and secure affected systems? Not asking just about
by cjbprime 7y ago
Honest question: is there any coordinated responder effort to use RCE vulns like this one to patch the vuln and secure affected systems? Not asking just about this exploit in particular but about the entire world of 0day Internet RCE.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y agoI doubt there's any coordinated effort because of legal issues if nothing else, but there have absolutely been various people doing that over the years. Off the top my head it's more popular with routers/IoT, where there have been people exploiting vulnerabilities in the name of both fixing them and just bricking the devices so that there are few are vulnerable devices on the internet.
- michaelt 7y agoThere exist 'Anti-worms' like Anii-Santy and Welchia [1] which patch vulnerable hosts. And I've heard of malicious viruses that patch their host simply to ensure they have that host to themselves. However, this is unambiguously illegal under anti-hacking laws like CFAA [2] which introduces a variety of practical difficulties. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-worm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-worm [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act
- cjbprime 7y agoThanks. I wonder if doing it under the control of a team like CERT could make it less illegal. Or, if there was a way for a company to publicly pre-authorize a non-prosecution agreement for 0day patch defense. Surprised I haven't seen more discussion about the idea.