Cisco hits back at flaw researcher

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Are you quite certain?

"Besides, it turns out that you can only do this on your own local router - not one over the internet."

Where did you get this information? Someplace besides here, I hope?

In the story, this is stated to be the case by the ISS spokesman --- not Mr. Lynn. It's certainly not cut-n-dried just from reading this story; if the guy thought it could bring down the 'Net (which seems slightly optimistic, but it could definitely cripple large segments if systems are not patched), then it's likely that the attack could be duplicated, at least against some configurations (not every router that is remotely administered is done so from an RFC 1918 address). Besides, sometimes "local" is just a matter of netmask, y'know?

Could be tantamount to {$large_monopoly_from_redmond} saying that "no in-the-wild exploit for this security bug has yet been discovered" and everyone interpreting that to mean that such an exploit does not exist --- 'it ain't necessarily so', as grandad used to say....

It does sound like he broke the rules by reverse engineering the router's code; perhaps he should be punished. But to say that he's "dumb" isn't quite true, either; if what he discovered wasn't an issue, Cisco wouldn't be seeking its day in court against him.

I doubt that they'll do much besides threaten, and keep an injunction; perhaps slight criminal action, but I don't know how much $$ they can get by suing an unemployed guy....

Posted by: dalecosp   Posted on: 07/28/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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