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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
A vulnerability in Ghidra, the generic disassembler and decompiler released by the NSA in early March, could be exploited to execute code remotely, researchers say.
The flaw, an XML external entity (XXE) issue, was discovered in the Ghidra project loading process immediately after the tool was released.
Impacting the project open/restore, the vulnerability can be exploited by anyone able to trick a user into opening or restoring a specially crafted project, a GitHub report reveals.
To reproduce the issue, one would need to create a project, close it, then put an XXE payload in any of the XML files in the project directory. As soon as the project is opened, the payload is executed.
Now that's just embarrassing.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday March 21 2019, @05:20PM (4 children)
The NSA and other 3-letter agencies have a consistent pattern: When the choice is between (a) our stuff's vulnerable and their stuff's vulnerable, and (b) our stuff's safe and their stuff's safe, they choose (a) every time. Their philosophy seems to be that when it comes to dealing with them getting into our stuff, the best defense is a good offense and they should be countered not by fixing the vulnerability but by breaking into the opposing computers to destroy whatever was stolen or otherwise cause damage in return.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 21 2019, @05:32PM (1 child)
It could be a calculated decision.
Our stuff's vulnerable: simple collateral damage -- and better yet, the costs aren't to the government!
Their stuff's vulnerable: That's more important. Necessary to blackmail or topple governments. Spy capability necessary to trumple on people's right to speech and privacy.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 21 2019, @06:04PM
Trumple. Now that's a word worthy of being added to the dictionary!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday March 21 2019, @07:21PM
A more consistent model is achieved if you consider them to be their own nation state and put the United States on their enemies list.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @04:14AM
An important factor is the degree of overlap between vulnerabilities discovered by different nations.
If there is high overlap, then getting the bugs fixed is likely to secure American computers against foes. We should do it.
If there is low overlap, then getting the bugs fixed is unlikely to secure American computers against foes. Bug fixes only weaken our offense. It would be dumb to give up our offensive ability for no gain in defense.
The usual case is low overlap. This is more the case now than it was in the past, because the easy bugs are gone. It is thus a bad idea for the NSA to get the bugs fixed.