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by moyix 3596 days ago
Washington post got former NSA TAO employees to go on record (anonymously) confirming the leaked toolkit comes from NSA:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/power...

2 comments

Good. Given that these tools no longer can be considered available only to the NSA, they might start working with vendors to close these particular set of holes.
I wonder how this leak affects their "vulnerabilities equities process".

The publicly available data would suggest that thus-far NSA-hoarded vulnerabilities are definitively known to actors who appear willing to act against US interests.

Vendor disclosure means those vulnerabilities can be patched and US interests can cease being vulnerable, but could also confirm NSA awareness of vulnerabilities - which could in turn cause attribution concerns for past or present operations the NSA is undertaking or has undertaken using these vulnerabilities (in addition to providing additional credibility to the leaker).

What a tangled web.

Worked with the US govt (selling to it) and can tell by browsing those files, there is a high chance it came from a 3 letter US govt agency. It was just by looking at stuff they reference, packages, tools they use. The language and phraseology in comments (excluding bundled software like requests and scapy of course). After many years you start to get a feel for stuff like that.
Yes, I think so, too.