Legal Threats Against Security Researchers

How vendors try to save face by stifling legitimate research

It has been clear for years that businesses have dropped ethics in favor of profit. Protecting the bottom line is usually more important than doing the right thing, even if it means providing a better product to their customers. Companies fear negative publicity, especially if said publicity challenges the security of their products. It doesn't matter that just about every company and product ships with numerous vulnerabilities, and adding security is a band-aid solution rather than an integral part of the development life cycle. Rather than work with researchers who are frequently providing what would otherwise be high-dollar specialized consulting for free, some companies opt to go take the muddy road and pursue legal action against the researchers. This action is one of desperation and attempts to silence and stifle legitimate research and free speech. Invariably, this ends up being a huge negative PR move, much worse than what would occur with the publication of said research without the legal murk.

Companies: embrace researchers who are trying to improve the security of your products. Work with them, fix vulnerabilities, and coordinate disclosure. This will go a lot farther toward building customer confidence and help avoid negative publicity.

Researchers: help protect yourself from legal issues. Visit the EFF's Coders' Rights Project. Work with companies and respect their timelines for implementing fixes.

When	Company making threat	Researchers	Research Topic	Resolution/Status
2012-05-28	E-Soft (UK)	Eric Romang	Video of Metasploit Digital Music Pad SEH overflow exploitation module	E-Soft sent a bogus copyright claim to YouTube to have the video removed. It has been reposted to the same site once by another individual. The video remains available, and there have been no reported attempts to silence news of the exploit in other manners.
2012-01-31	Smart Grid/Meter Vendor (unspecified)	Don Weber / InGuardians	Smart Grid Meter Security Assessment Tool Release	Researcher cancelled the talk last minute, citing the desire to work with the vendor. Note: a reliable source tells Attrition that InGuardian did not reach out to the vendor until weeks after the ShmooCon CFP. Further, Weber says there was no vulnerabilities being disclosed, suggesting that InGuardian may have cancelled the talk when the unspecified vendor agreed to become a client.
2011-11-22	Carrier IQ	Trevor Eckhart	Carrier IQ software logs excessive information	Carrier IQ threatens Eckhart and sends a cease & desist letter. Shortly after negative attention, Carrier IQ retracts the threat. Research stays public.
2011-10-13	First State Superannuation	Patrick Webster	Direct Object Reference vulnerability in FSS website	Researcher received letter indicating FSS reported him to the police and threatened him with further legal action. After negative publicity, First State Super withdraws legal threat.
2011-08-01	Trans Link Systems	Brenno de Winter	OV Transit Payment System Vulnerabilities	Researcher learned he may have been facing legal charges. Vendor statement says a criminal complaint was filed and researcher was questioned, but researcher was not the target of the complaint. It is still not clear who the complaint was filed against or if this was a tactic to stifle de Winter's research
2011-04-27	Magix AG	Acidgen	Buffer overflow in Music Maker 16 software (version 16.0.2.4)	Research published despite threat. Researchers convinced Magix to change stance on vuln handling. Magix opened a resource for security researches site, but try to force researchers not to disclose w/o a patch or fix available, in their terms and conditions.
2011-03-21	German telecommunications firm (unspecified)	Thomas Roth	Amazon EC2-based password cracking software	Roth's apartment was raided, his bank account frozen, and he had to refrain from releasing his tool during Black Hat. Injunction had since been revoked, Roth published the research.
2010-07-26	Financial Industry Client (unspecified)	Varun Uppal and Gyan Chawdhary	High-Speed Trading System Hacks	Due to financial pressure (i.e. loss of a client), the talk was pulled and not presenter anywhere else.
2010-07-15	Taiwanese Government	Wayne Huang, Armorize Technologies Inc.	The Chinese Cyber Army: An Archaeological Study from 2001 to 2010	Two weeks before the conference, the talk was cancelled due to "pressure from the Taiwanese government."
2009-07-18	RSA	Scott Jarkoff	Navy Federal Credit Union Web Site Flaws	SliceHost / TechMiso challenges RSA, RSA backs down
2009-07-17	Comerica Bank	Lance James	XSS / Phishing vulnerabilities on Comerica site	C&D Sent to Tumblr, information removed but vulnerability still present (2009-07-17)
2009-06-06	Orange.fr	HackersBlog	Multiple Vulnerabilities [1] [2]	Apparent legal threats, details not published.
2008-08-13	Sequoia Voting Systems	Ed Felten	Voting Machine Audit	Research still not published (2008-10-02)
2008-08-09	Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority	Zach Anderson, RJ Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa	Electronic Fare Payment (Charlie Card/Charlie Ticket)	Gag order lifted, Researchers hired as consultants by MBTA
2008-07-09	NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors)	Radboud University Nijmegen	Mifare Classic Card Chip Security	Research Published
2007-12-06	Autonomy Corp., PLC	Secunia	KeyView Vulnerability Research	Research Published
2007-07-29	U.S. Customs	Halvar Flake	Security Training Material	Researcher denied entry into U.S., training cancelled last minute
2007-04-17	BeThere (Be Un limited)	Sid Karunaratne	Publishing ISP Router Backdoor Information	Researcher still in talks with BeThere, passwords redacted, patch supplied, ISP service not restored (2007-07-06)
2007-02-27	HID Global	Chris Paget/IOActive	RFID Security Problems	Talk pulled, research not published
2007-??-??	TippingPoint Technologies, Inc.	/David Maynor / ErrataSec	Reversing TippingPoint rule set to discover vulnerabilities	Bulk of research later published at BlackHat Briefings 07.
2005-07-29	Cisco Systems, Inc.	Mike Lynn / ISS	Cisco router vulnerabilities	Resigned from ISS before settlement, gave BH presentation, future disclosure injunction agreed on
2005-03-25	Sybase, Inc.	Next-Generation Security Software	Sybase Database vulnerabilities	Threat dropped, research published
2003-09-30	Blackboard Transaction System	Billy Hoffman and Virgil Griffith	Blackboard issued C&D to Interz0ne conference, filed complaint against students	Confidential agreement reached between Hoffman, Griffith and Blackboard
2002-07-30	Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP)	SNOsoft	Tru64 Unix OS vulnerability - DMCA based threat	Vendor/researcher agree on future timeline, Additional Tru64 vulnerabilities published, HP asks Neohapsis for OpenSSL exploit code shortly after
2001-07-16	Adobe Systems Incorporated	Dmitry Sklyarov & ElcomSoft	Adobe eBook AEBPR Bypass	Elcomsoft found Not Guilty
2001-??-??	Tegam International Viguard Antivirus	Guillaume Tena (Guillermito)	Vulnerabilities in Viguard Antivirus	Suspended fine of 5,000 Euros
2001-04-23	Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Verance Corporation	Ed Felten	Four Watermark Protection Schemes Bypass - DMCA based threat	Research published at USENIX 2001
2000-08-17	Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) & DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA)	2600: The Hacker Quarterly	DVD Encryption Breaking Software (DeCSS)	DeCSS ruled 'not a trade secret'

Notes about this page:

• Companies that broadly use the DMCA may not be included. This page focuses on companies that specifically use legal threats to stifle security research.
• Many companies may use financial threats to stifle research, threatening to pull funding, support contracts or influence customers. There is an arguably fine line between legal threats (costly) and financial threats (also costly). These may be included if they can be properly documented.
• Companies that fire off Cease & Desist (C&D) letters but do not follow-up will be included here if applicable.

The following incidents are not confirmed as legal or financial threats. They are being included here in the hopes that someone will come forward with additional information or clarification.

When	Company making threat	Researchers	Research Topic	Resolution/Status
2008-08-01	Apple	Charles Edge / 318 Inc.	FileVault encryption system weaknesses	NDA between Edge/Apple existed already, Apple called Edge on it. Researcher "rescinded talk" but BH CFP team shows no record of talk being submitted in first place. Attrition Theory: Incident used as press fodder for 318/Edge attention.
2006-12-07	Oracle Corporation	Argeniss	Week of Oracle Bugs (WoOB)	WoOB cancelled, rumors of financial/legal threats

The following incidents are related to the ones above, but "cross the line". They include incidents where it was not "security research", but rather activity that was considered a crime by current laws (at the time). Instead of following a more ethical approach or going the route of responsible disclosure, the researcher chose to research and disclose the details in a manner that was questionable. While the threat of law suit of such activity is frivilous to most, the companies are being prudent because the researcher in question likely did break laws in the process.

When	Company making threat	Researchers	Research Topic	Resolution/Status
2010-08-23	n/a	Hari Prasad, Netindia	Voting Machine vulnerability research	Prasad arrested, machine given to him was apparently stolen
2008-09-12	Carleton University	Mansour Moufid	Used keylogger to expose student information	Moufid charged with computer crime
2006-04-28	University of Southern California	Eric McCarty	Database programming error allows disclosure of student SSN and more	McCarty charged with computer crime
2003-08-18	Tornado Development, Inc.	Bret McDanel	Secure Webmail Session Hijacking discovery	Arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to 16 months of prison time
2002-03-18	Harris County District Court	Stefan Puffer	Insecure wireless network discovery	Faces 5 years and $250,000 fine. The jury deliberated for 15 minutes before acquitting Puffer.

Over the years, many talks have been cancelled for various reasons. Sometimes, the rumor of legal threats dominate the venue and/or news, but never happened. This table will list such events, to help clarify what happened.

Finally, the Electronic Frontier Foundation maintains a Takedown Hall of Shame that is related to this topic.

Copyright 2008-2011 by Attrition.org. Permission is granted to quote, reprint or redistribute provided the text is not altered, and appropriate credit is given.