Chilling Effect of the Wassenaar Arrangement On Exploit Research

Bismillah writes: Security researchers are confused as to how the export control and licensing controls covering exploits affect their work. The upcoming Wassenaar restrictions were expected to discourage publication of such research, and now it's already started to happen. Grant Wilcox, writing his dissertation for the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, was forced to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach when it came time to release the vulnerabilities he found in Microsoft's EMET 5.1. "No legal consultation on the matter took place, but Wilcox noted that exploit vendors such as Vupen had started to restrict sales of their products and services because of new export control and licensing provisions under the Wassenaar Arrangement. ... Wilcox investigated the export control regulations but was unable to clarify whether it applied to his academic work. The university did not take part. He said the provisions defining which type of exploits and software are and aren't controlled were written in ambiguous language and appeared to contradict each other."

Comments

Declaratory judgment

[overshoot]

There's a mechanism in US law to deal with this kind of thing. It's called a "declaratory judgment," where a plaintiff who has reason to be afraid that the law will be enforced to land him in prison or bankruptcy sues for a judgment that either the law doesn't forbid his (in this case) publication of his research or that the Constitution forbids a law that would. Yeah, such suits ain't cheap. Fortunately there are several nonprofits that exist to fight exactly that kind of battle.