Comment by tonyedgecombe

1 day ago

Is it criminal to sell an exploit?

Facilitation of a crime is a crime too. So I think in the US and most western countries, yes. At least if it gets used illegally later.

  • Pretty sure you need actual knowledge of a planned crime for that to stick. But I'm also sure the defense will be expensive.

    • I'm not sure but if negligence is punishable too for facilitation, it should stick, right? I think it's reasonable to expect that most buyers of exploits try to use them in illegal ways (or are feds acting like that to catch you).

    • They won't have to get you for facilitating the later crime, they can get you for testing the exploit on your own account, which is also a crime since OpenAI's computer system is involved.

I don't think so, businesses like Zerodium bought zero days in plain sight and I don't think they faced legal consequences. They don't operate anymore though. So basically I'd say it depends who you sell it to and how.