this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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I'll bet the NSA or others were using it and didn't want it broken, maybe
The NSA probably has the cryptographic keys (which they could easilly get with a FISA court order) for signing Microsoft Windows Updates, kernel drivers and so on, so I wouldn't be surprised if that is their main attack vector for Windows.
There are massive benefits for a State Surveillance and Electronic Espionage entity based in the country of the headquarters of the company that makes the OS and which has special Laws and special Surveillance Courts with secret court orders to let them get their hands directly on the data itself (if hosted on "the cloud") or the official digital keys for pushing whatever they want into computers running that OS.
Windows, iOS and MacOS should be treated by default as thoroughly compromised by the NSA, as should be any cloud hosting in the US or applications from companies based there.
This is not just an American thing: would you really trust a Russian OS or Chinese Data Hosting provider?
What I don’t get is, we all know the NSA is doing this. It’s no big secret. Why don’t they just report the 0-day to Microsoft, so they can fix it, so that North Korea doesn’t also exploit it. In exchange, Microsoft can give them some special access or special keys or some backdoor. Why even bother pretending anymore or putting on this charade. It’s the same thing over and over again.
They might be doing this. The thing is, putting something like that in makes so much more likely you'll accidentally create an exploit for other actors as well. It's why security experts are so against backdoors. They fundamentally compromise security.
If one puts an indeterminate amount of red tape around an object / thing / thought, does one become entangled in said red tape?
-- some idiot called lad from the internet's, circa last decade