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Microsoft lashes out at Googler for making Windows vulnerability public

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JavaJones:
I'm not suggesting that he did nothing wrong by any means. I just felt like the castigation of Google was rather far of the mark, and that the whole situation was being seen in rather black and white terms. Try this on for size:

1: Google may or may not have had any involvement; in the absence of compelling evidence to prove its involvement, let's assume none. It's only sensible.

2: A security researcher whom is an employee of Google found a flaw in Windows, supposedly on his own time and for his own reasons. He contacted MS who reacted slowly so he got frustrated and made an error in judgment by releasing not just word of the exploit, but demo code as well. Perhaps part of the reason he released demo code was out of frustration for not being taken seriously (i.e. "Don't believe me? Well here it is, it's a real problem. Deal with it"), but that's not a good excuse, and he should not have released actionable code.

3: Microsoft is responsible for a bad bug in their code, one which has been reported previously in other variations and incarnations, going years back (if you believe the Slashdot discussions on the issue). They are also notorious douches, and tend not to "play ball" with security researchers unless they're well known or represent big companies. Microsoft needs to act quicker and be less prejudiced when dealing with reported security flaws.

Does that sound like a balanced view? It does to me.

- Oshyan

wraith808:
...He contacted MS who reacted slowly...
-JavaJones (June 16, 2010, 01:15 PM)
--- End quote ---

Five Three Days.  Now that we're to the "it's MS's bug and he made an error in judgement" phase, how is 3 days slowly?

Eóin:
Let's not forget what happened when MS put out a faulty patch recently which had people screaming for blood over the inconvenience it caused. Patching holes is not necessarily a simple matter, I imagine testing a patch is enormously complicated.

Rushing out a patch for an exploit not already in the wild would have been irresponsible on MS's part.

40hz:
FWIW I doubt very much that Google had much (if anything) to do with what went down.

I think you just had a researcher in Google forget that the rest of the world doesn't operate the way things do inside his company's research department. Especially when it's a company where people are allowed to "run and play" and the open sharing of information and code is the norm. Or at least it is on the "inside."

To my mind, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with living in an ivory tower. Just don't go dumping a chamber pot over the parapet and then expect whoever gets hit not to be upset about it.

40hz:
Rushing out a patch for an exploit not already in the wild would have been irresponsible on MS's part.
-Eóin (June 16, 2010, 01:50 PM)
--- End quote ---

And ironically enough, Microsoft is very likely feeling pressure to rush the patch now that the code is out in the wild. It's become a race between them and the people that will try to take advantage of this vulnerability.

So how again did Tavis Ormandy make things better for everybody by doing what he did?

I think I missed that memo.

--------------

P.S. I think Google is only biding it's time and letting the dust settle before they hand Tavis Ormandy his walking papers. To paraphrase The Godfather: Keep your friends close, and keep employees that did something which might get you hauled into court even closer.

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