Facebook Helped the FBI Exploit Vulnerability in a Secure Linux Distro
Facebook helped the FBI exploit a Tails vulnerability to capture child predator Buster Hernandez, raising ethical concerns about user privacy versus law enforcement needs and calls for transparency in government hacking.
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Facebook collaborated with the FBI to track down child predator Buster Hernandez by helping develop an exploit for the Tails operating system, which is designed for secure and anonymous use. This cooperation involved a third-party contractor who created a zero-day exploit that allowed the FBI to uncover Hernandez's real IP address. Hernandez had been using Tails to evade law enforcement while extorting underage girls. Facebook had previously monitored Hernandez's activities on its platform and prioritized his capture, even creating automated systems to flag suspicious accounts. However, Facebook did not inform the Tails developers about the vulnerability, raising ethical concerns about the implications of exploiting security flaws in software designed to protect users. Critics within Facebook expressed discomfort with the decision, while others defended it as a necessary action to ensure justice for victims. The incident has sparked discussions about the balance between user privacy and law enforcement needs, especially in light of ongoing debates about encryption and surveillance backdoors in technology. Senator Ron Wyden emphasized the need for transparency regarding government use of hacking tools and the potential risks of sharing vulnerabilities among agencies.
- Facebook assisted the FBI in exploiting a vulnerability in Tails to capture a child predator.
- The collaboration involved a third-party contractor developing a zero-day exploit.
- Facebook did not notify Tails developers about the security flaw, raising ethical concerns.
- The case highlights tensions between user privacy and law enforcement needs.
- There are calls for greater transparency in government hacking tool usage.
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11 commentsI don't immediately see an ethical problem with developing a zero-day exploit to catch a suspected/presumed very bad person like that, so long as: (1) it's used only for that one target; (2) you promptly start the responsible disclosure to upstream, and later public.
Unfortunately, the nice, clean ethics gets more complicated when that zero-day is temporarily in the hands of an organization that would presumably also use it for other targets.
Historically, some good and important government organizations have had complications, such as some personnel not believing in the rules and checks&balances under which they're supposed to operate, or personnel acting under direction of leadership or outside politicians who're misaligned with national laws and values.
If someone with the ability to develop a zero-day wanted to catch the very bad people, while not compromising all the lawful civil rights leaders and journalists who bother some questionable politician, how would they do that?
I think this is a better and easier way of finding these criminals then trying to pass laws to allow back-doors in the OS.
Interesting read
Yes, satisfactory to see the FBI being able to catch that type of scum.
But at the same time I can't help thinking that next, it's going to be the UK governement hacking distros to find out from which IP you posted a meme on Twitter.
All the major governments and the companies are known to have zero day exploits saved up for a rainy day.
Hence why countries like China ban Windows from government staff, and why USA ban Huwaei/hikvision etc in kind.
But every time I read these types of articles, I am not shocked to learn about the folks working at these tech companies seemingly against working with law enforcement whatsoever.
If it was your child, wouldn’t you want to help rather than stand on principles?
That’s what gets me every time.
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