'Kill switch' flaw found in top web weapon, victims sigh with relief

Re: Slight issue

I ask myself, is that statement entirely true. I'm sure that hacking the control server is indeed illegal in most jurisdictions, but 'all' is a very sweeping statement. I'm sure if you really wanted to zap them, one of the Pacific island nations won't stop you. I volunteer to pop over and run the server if you like.

Re: Slight issue

Not sure that's true. Most jurisdictions include defenses of preventing a greater crime from occurring.

So, if you see someone gonna shoot someone and you smack them over the head with a rock, you technically have assaulted them but you have a defense of preventing a greater crime.

Re: Slight issue

But what are they going to do? Go to the Police and say that they were running a perfectly legitimate distributed denial of service attack when the victims of their attack turned tables on them.

Or as I like to know it the: "Bigger boys came" defence.

Your analogy is not like, for example, a trespasser being shot by a landowner, where someone who is breaking the law is subject to a far more serious crime. This is someone who is committing a serious crime potentially wanting protection from their victims stopping them from committing that crime.

Re: Slight issue

Not if you get a 'Merkin judge to sign off on it first.

Re: Slight issue

Self defense is a legal defense in response to all actual or attempted crimes against person and property in every jurisdiction as far as I know so all a reverse-attacker has to do is to state that you're "working for or on behalf of the victim" and you are away clean. Unless some lawyer here can show us why not?

Re: Oh that's priceless!

Yo dawg...

In theory yes, but that would be crediting the writer with slightly more understanding of the TCP and HTTP protocols than a glance at the pretty diagrams in the respective Wikipedia articles imparts.

And it would also imply that the source is in any way easily maintainable and not kludged together from snippets barfed up on the first page of results of a Google search.

Re: Find a vunerability

Don't be so sure, because they probably wouldn't have gone public with it if the white hats hadn't ALREADY gotten in and made sure they can STAY in.

Re: the last thing you'll do

And then some poor hosting company with a pwned box in some data center somewhere suddenly finds half its customers are offline. Might convince more outfits that should know better to take security seriously.