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Comment by TACIXAT | Hacker News Reader

Speculation: Zerodium has an 8.x RCE and burns the 7.x noscript bypass to get users to the new version. Added bonus of publicity.

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That's an interesting explanation. "We have decided to disclose this exploit as it has reached its end-of-life and it's not affecting Tor Browser version 8 which was released last week. We also wanted to raise awareness about the lack (or insufficient) security auditing of major components bundled by default with Tor Browser and trusted by millions of users." is the explanation provided by Zerodium. End of life? Raise awareness? Sounds like shitty PR to me... There must be other explanations. Anyone has any idea, beyond the one already provided above?

Maybe there's a slight chance that they just want to undermine Tor and make people question its security.

But honestly, the parent's idea seems quite likely.

If they're in the business of buying and selling Tor browser zero-days, I'd think they shouldn't be undermining the adoption of the Tor browser...?

Some agency might want to do that. Could have just paid Zerodium to make such a strong statement.

Cheaper than decrypting and mitm-ing all this traffic. Scare ordinary people away, more likely it is to random pick a valid target

They are in the business of buying and selling any zero-days. Tor browser primary goal is to be secure, unlike any other browser (which may still want to be secure but have many others goals). This zero day isn't exactly one either if you think about it, it only allow to run JS, which is a default feature on any other browser.

So they essentially lose nothing over it. People won't stop using internet and move toward written letters... they will just move toward other browser or update their browser, they will still be using something that Zerodium are buying and selling zero days for.

Occam's Razor. It's good publicity for them. I'd never heard of them until today. Now I have a new company to hate.

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