Clearly it would be illegal. I was thinking about this as an extension of the market for day 0 exploits. Say you have found a new exploit. According to article

Clearly it would be illegal. I was thinking about this as an extension of the market for day 0 exploits. Say you have found a new exploit. According to articles like this, you would typically sell it to some government spy agency, or even worse "bad guys", for something up to $500k. http://www.economist.com/news/business/21574478-market-software-helps-hackers-penetrate-computer-systems-digital-arms-trade http://www.economist.com/news/business/21574478-market-softw... This would be a way of converting that exploit into much more. If you had some experience in finance (or knew the right people), you could easily make millions on a series of trades. Illegal, sure, but this is for a person already used to dealing in very shady corners.