Mozilla loses bid to learn about government hack in child-porn investigation
A federal judge in Tacoma, Washington, has blocked Mozilla’s attempt to learn whether a security vulnerability in its Firefox browser helped a government investigation of child pornography.
U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan denied Mozilla’s motion to intervene in one of the prosecutions in an order (PDF) on Monday, report Reuters and the Hill.
Mozilla’s motion had asked Bryan to order the government to disclose the vulnerability to Mozilla so it can create a fix before the information is released to lawyers for the defendant, Jay Michaud. He is one of 137 people charged after the government seized the Playpen child pornography website and installed malware on computers logged into the website.
The government exploited a vulnerability in the Tor browser that was used to access Playpen. Tor’s code is partly based on Firefox code, the Hill explains in a prior story.
Bryan ordered the government in February to disclose the flaw to Michaud’s lawyers, but changed his mind last week after the government filed a request for reconsideration that cited national security.
Because the government no longer has to make the disclosure to Michaud, Mozilla’s motion is apparently moot, Bryan said. “It appears that Mozilla’s concerns should be addressed to the United States and should not be part of this criminal proceeding,” Bryan wrote.
