Netragard on Exploit Brokering

Netragard on Exploit Brokering

Exploit Brokering

Historically ethical researchers would provide their findings free of charge to software vendors for little more than a mention.  In some cases vendors would react and threaten legal action citing violations of poorly written copyright laws that include but are not limited to the DMCA.  To put this into perspective, this is akin to threatening legal action against a driver for pointing out that the breaks on a school bus are about to fail.
This unfriendliness (among various other things) caused some researchers to withdraw from the practice of full disclosure. Why risk doing a vendor the favor of free work when the vendor might try to sue you?
Organizations like CERT help to reduce or eliminate the risk to security researchers who wish to disclose vulnerabilities.  These organizations work as mediators between the researchers and the vendors to ensure safety for both parties.  Other organizations like iDefense and ZDI also work as middlemen but unlike CERT earn a profit from the vulnerabilities that they purchase. While they may pay a security researcher an average of $500-$5000 per vulnerability, they charge their customers significantly more for their early warning services.  Its also unclear (to us anyway) how quickly they notify vendors of the vulnerabilities that they buy.
The next level of exploit buyers are the brokers.  Exploit brokers may cater to one or more of three markets that include National, International, or Black.  While Netragard’s program only sells to National buyers, companies like VUPEN sell internationally.  Also unlike VUPEN, Netragard will sell exploits to software vendors willing to engage in an exclusive sale.   Netragard’s Exploit Acquisition Program was created to provide ethical researchers with the ability to receive fair pay for their hard work; it was not created to keep vulnerable software vulnerable.  Our bidding starts at $10,000 per exploit and goes up from there.


Its important to understandwhat a computer exploit is and is not.  It is a tool or technique that makes full use of and derives benefit from vulnerable computer software.   It is not malware despite the fact that malware may contain methods for exploitation.  The software vulnerabilities that exploits make use of are created by software vendors during the development process.  The idea that security researchers create vulnerability is absurd.  Instead, security researchers study software and find the already existing flaws.
The behavior of an exploit with regards to malevolence or benevolence is defined by the user and not the tool.  Buying an exploit is much like buying a hammer in that they can both be used to do something constructive or destructive.  For this reason it’s critically important that any ethical exploit broker thoroughly vet their customers before selling an exploit.  Any broker that does not thoroughly vet their customers is operating irresponsibly.
What our customers do with the exploits that they buy is none of our business just as what you do with your laptop is not its vendors business.   That being said, any computer system is far more dangerous than any exploit.  An exploit can only target one very specific thing in a very specific way and has a limited shelf life. It is not entirely uncommon for vulnerabilities to be accidentally fixed thus rendering a 0-day exploit useless.  A laptop on the other hand has an average shelf life of 3 years and can attack anything that’s connected to a network.   In either case,  its not the laptop or the exploit that represents danger it’s the intent of its user.
Finally, most of the concerns about malware, spyware, etc. are not only unfounded and unrealistic, but absolutely absurd.  Consider that businesses like VUPEN wants to prevent vendors from fixing vulnerabilities.  If VUPEN were to provide an exploit to a customer for the purpose of creating malware then that would guarantee the death of the exploit.  Specifically, when malware spreads antivirus companies capture and study it.  They would most certainly identify the method of propagation (the exploit) that in turn would result in the vendor fixing the vulnerability.

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Karen Huggins

Chief Financial, HR and Admin Officer
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Karen joined the Netragard team in 2017 and oversees Netragard’s financial, human resources as well as administration functions. She also provides project management support to the operations and overall strategy of Netragard.
 
Prior to joining Netragard, she worked at RBC Investor Services Bank in Luxembourg in the role of Financial Advisor to the Global CIO of Investor Services, as well as several years managing the Financial Risk team to develop and implement new processes in line with regulatory requirements around their supplier services/cost and to minimize the residual risk to the organization.
 
With over 20 years of experience in finance with global organizations, she brings new perspective that will help the organization become more efficient as a team. She received her Bachelor of Finance from The Florida State University in the US and her Master of Business Administration at ESSEC Business School in Paris, France.

Philippe Caturegli

Chief Hacking Officer
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Philippe has over 20 years of experience in information security. Prior to joining Netragard, Philippe was a Senior Manager within the Information & Technology Risk practice at Deloitte Luxembourg where he led a team in charge of Security & Privacy engagements.

Philippe has over 10 years of experience in the banking and financial sector that includes security assessment of large and complex infrastructures and penetration testing of data & voice networks, operating systems, middleware and web applications in Europe, US and Middle East.

Previously, Philippe held roles within the information system security department of a global pharmaceutical company in London. While working with a heterogeneous network of over 100,000 users across the world and strict regulatory requirements, Philippe gained hands-on experience with various security technologies (VPN, Network and Application Firewalls, IDS, IPS, Host Intrusion Prevention, etc.)

Philippe actively participates in the Information Security community. He has discovered and published several security vulnerabilities in leading products such as Cisco, Symantec and Hewlett-Packard.

He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), PCI Qualified Security Assessors (PCI-QSA), OSSTMM Professional Security Analyst (OPSA), OSSTMM Professional Security Tester (OPST), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)and Associate Member of the Business Continuity Institute (AMBCI).

Adriel Desautels

Chief Technology Officer
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Adriel T. Desautels, has over 20 years of professional experience in information security. In 1998, Adriel founded Secure Network Operations, Inc. which was home to the SNOsoft Research Team. SNOsoft gained worldwide recognition for its vulnerability research work which played a pivotal role in helping to establish today’s best practices for responsible disclosure. While running SNOsoft, Adriel created the zeroday Exploit Acquisition Program (“EAP”), which was transferred to, and continued to operate under Netragard.
 
In 2006, Adriel founded Netragard on the premise of delivering high-quality Realistic Threat Penetration Testing services, known today as Red Teaming. Adriel continues to act as a primary architect behind Netragard’s services, created and manages Netragard’s 0-day Exploit Acquisition Program and continues to be an advocate for ethical 0-day research, use and sales.
 
Adriel is frequently interviewed as a subject matter expert by media outlets that include, Forbes, The Economist, Bloomberg, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, and The Register. Adriel is often an invited keynote or panelist at events such as Blackhat USA, InfoSec World, VICELAND Cyberwar, BSides, and NAW Billion Dollar CIO Roundtable.