Patenting security fixes has gone commercial

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/06/security_fix_patent/

If can patent a fix then you can prevent others using it. It could be a great DoS. I suppose the main point if you can patent security patches then so can the crackers.

Martyr

hmm..from reading the website intellectualweapons.com, it appears to be no more than a way for them to make money from 'zero day' vulnerabilities.

they are a 'middle man' for the sale/transaction of information on unknown vulnerabilities, most likely to multiple buyers with the agreement not to disclose the details...and the author of the bug find would never really know how much is being made from his/her work...thats what it looks like to me.

a company set up to exploit the software exploiter.

they get the information, sell it for whatever price they like, and give a small donation to the finder of the flaw.
IMHO all this will do is drive some vulnerability researchers deeper underground.

i don't know much about the law regarding patents, but this doesn't make any sense..patent a fix for a bug in software?..bizarre.

EDIT:
just thought i'd add to this, it might interest some of you to get your cheesy mits on a new C decompiler (where available) by one of IDA Pros prolific authors, Ilfak Guilfanov.

this is a very cool demo of the plugin IN action

watch the magic