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Comment by rsoto | Hacker News Reader

I'm confused. Why would the government want to break Chrome? Also, if they are not going to release the exploit soon (especially to Google), why are you saying 'safer software for all'?

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"Why would the government want to break Chrome?" So they could run arbitrary payloads targeted at specific people.

Maybe I'm naive but it could simply be because they are evaluating it for internal use. The FBI and CIA don't want to use vulnerable browsers any more than we do.

I'm going to say that's definitely naive. It's a well-known fact that the US government has gradually been placing more and more emphasis on "cyber-warfare" over the last several years. A 0-day vulnerability allowing code execution (in a browser that's popular with tech-savvy users, even) is a very valuable tool in that regard.

you know that there is more than one government on earth... and all of them arent pro free-speech :)

Safer software for all, because it's a better thing that VUPEN discover the bug than if it's discovered by some criminals who keep it secret and scam/hack

> Safer software for all, because it's a better thing that VUPEN discover the bug than if it's discovered by some criminals who keep it secret and scam/hack

I suppose it depends on the point of view, but having it exclusively in the hands of governments can easily mean it's limited to criminals who keep it secret and hack.

Thanks for your response, but my question remains.

Why would a entity as big as "the government" would invest in breaking one browser used by a minority (~10%) of users in the web? Wouldn't it be much easier to just compromise their Internet connections?

Let's say that, like most everyone else in the world, they already know how to break firefox and internet explorer, etc. They don't want to spy on your net, they want to steal your files.

Arguably, that's exactly what VUPEN is doing here. They're keeping it secret, and only letting those who are willing to pay have the necessary knowledge regarding this vulnerability and any possible workarounds. It might not be a scam, but I do find it morally questionable to hide the details of a bug of this significance.

s/ those who are willing to pay / those (ONLY) who asked for and funded research into such a hack /

The Govt in question is obviously the US Govt. They want to know how to break Chrome, and every other net-facing app, so that they can hack your computer and spy on you, whoever you might be. Did you know, the CIA does do espionage?

Yeah, and no other governments do, especially not the french...

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