[ale] Good worm by Microsoft [??]

[F. Grant Robertson]

Interesting angle..  First, I didn't know this had been generated by
microsoft, do we have any confirmation of that?  This is the first
mention of the repair worm coming out of Redmond, for me at least.

Second, exploiting a vulnerability, even to "fix" the vulnerable system
is a violation of the DMCA, I believe. Wasn't there an "unauthorized
access" provision or something about exploiting a hole to gain control
of a system? Even without the DMCA, for certain machines (those handling
over X [5000 I think] dollars per 24/hours span in transactions) this
would violate the prior computer security laws to the extent of being
one felony charge for each system handling over X amount of transactions
per day.  

So, if this _is_ a Redmond "fixer" worm, wouldn't it be a prosecutable
offense? AFAIK and IANAL, no contract you could sign with Microsoft
would grant them immunity from federal prosecution for unleashing said
worm. 

Had something internal to windows made these boxes upgrade, that would
be legal but, initiating the upgrade by exploiting a hole, IMHO would
cross a significant line.

-Grant





On Mon, 2003-08-18 at 21:10, Debrihmi wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 19:27:01 -0400, aaron wrote
> > Of course, the "after the damage is done" privacy invading worms 
> > that Micro$haft is now breeding would never even need to exist if 
> > the Micro$haft operating systems weren't so riddled with worm holes 
> > in the first place.


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