FBI May Be Hoarding a Firefox Zero-Day (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Vice reported at the end of March that the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice are fighting tooth and nail to keep a Tor Browser exploit hidden from the public eye. Computer experts were quick to point out that this Tor Browser exploit, technically speaking, is a Firefox exploit, since Tor's browser is based on Firefox's ESR platform. Taking into account that Firefox follows open-source philosophy and reveals all security flaws reported, the effort which the FBI puts into restricting access to its exploit leads to only one conclusion, and that is that the FBI is hoarding a Firefox zero-day, currently unpatched in the browser's core -- something it hopes to use once again.

Comments

well, how many does the FBI have?

[turkeydance]

hoarders don't just have ONE.

Re: Reasonable solution

[Anonymous Coward]

With the known government lack of security how can it be? Online banking would have to vanish overnight.

A search warrant is not a find warrant.

[BitterOak]

It feels like we're coming to a head here with regards to the government and technology. At some point, we will have to find a reasonable solution to the problem of something which is strong enough for us, but in some way allows the government (with an appropriate warrant) to access data.

This statement seems to be based on a common misinterpretation of what a warrant is. Search warrants allow the police to search for things, but they do not necessarily guarantee that they will find what they're looking for, and most importantly, the existence of warrants does NOT incur an obligation on the public to live their day-to-day lives in such a way that future searches (with warrants) will be successful. Requiring computer users to use weakened or backdoored software for the simple reason that a warrant might be issued at some future time turns the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution entirely on its head

Re:A search warrant is not a find warrant.

[Anonymous Coward]

and most importantly, the existence of warrants does NOT incur an obligation on the public to live their day-to-day lives in such a way that future searches (with warrants) will be successful. Requiring computer users to use weakened or backdoored software for the simple reason that a warrant might be issued at some future time turns the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution entirely on its head

You seem to have forgotten that in the US we now live in an age where the government can mandate that every citizen enter into a relationship with a commercial entity, simply for being present here in the US, even if they don't want to (i.e., the Affordable Care Act individual mandate) and assess hefty penalties for failure to comply. Ordinarily I would agree with you that individual citizens would not be required to modify their day-to-day behavior simply to accommodate the government, but times are clearly changing.

If the government can force everyone to buy something whether or not they want it, then what is stopping them from forcing everyone to (fill in the blank)?

Re:Reasonable solution

[spire3661]

NO, there is no compromise. I am within my rights to make an unbreakable lock. The government has to learn to accept that. Warrants can be abused like any other power, the idea that everyone has to roll over at the sight of any warrant is flat out wrong. I get what you are saying, due process, i get it, but there are limits to what the government can ask. we are now at the stopping point.