They're using the vulnerability in question to go in and eliminate that vulnerability, locking themselves out. It's like a cop seeing a wide open front door, and going into the threshold in order to reach the door handle so he can pull it closed. Did he go into the house? Yes. Because it was open, and only in order to close it.

Except you have no idea what else they're doing in there before they so nicely "close the door".

Besides, your metaphor doesn't work since cops aren't allowed to just enter a premise due to it being unlocked or open. That doesn't fall under any of the reasons to enter a premise without warrant. Leaving a door unlocked or open is not a crime that gives them free pass.

I really have a hard time understanding people's logic on here sometimes. Apparently the entire US government is systemically racist and evil but these same people want to give more power to this government? Which is it?

Really? They can't set one foot inside in order to reach the doorhandle if the door is 90 degrees open?

And what America are we talking about, "your rights according to the ACLU" America, media portrayals of America, or in-real-life common sense America where you can have a ten minute conversation with a policeman about everyday things with no worries because it's actually no big deal?

Yes really and this isn't just simply "door closing".

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment

I guess. Reminds me of the time in Santiago de Chile we were fixing up a place and the door was ajar. A group of Jehova's Witnesses came in without knocking, holding their pamphlet in front of them in a noticeably odd way, in case they found anybody inside they'd be all about the pamphlet. I guess they thought it was their warrant.

...setting up YC company to purchase FBI-"tuned" computers for cheap.

This is very poor advice. “If the FBI is in your box you’re already dead.” No, in this case, they are fixing a hack. I don’t want them touching my stuff, but that’s hardly “dead”.

“Cheaper to buy a new box” Reinstalling and reconfiguring is always cheaper than buying new and reconfiguring.

This reasoning is very poor, why did you feel the need to make this comment?

I don't think he means that because it's the FBI. I think he means that since the FBI is using the vulnerability itself to patch affected systems that you've already been compromised if the FBI is able to do this to your system.

But buy a new machine?

It's a sticky wicket. A compromised machine is just that, compromised.

Someone recently posted a story about an exploit wherein the compiler itself was compromised to compromise a particular set of programs when compiling those programs. Including the compiler itself.

So closing this particular door does not mean that they didn't use their access to establish other doors. Or self-opening doors. Or any number of things. And you have no clue as to how far down it goes. This exploit could have compromised the boot loader or something. The only way to be completely sure is to essentially strip the machine to bare metal and audit every piece of software on it.

The safest thing to do, if you want to be completely sure, is to buy a new machine. And even then, you're trusting that the machine you bought hasn't been compromised by the manufacturer or something like that. But it's a known-ish quantity.

But that's a "nuke it from orbit" kind of option. Often, being completely sure isn't necessary. We can live with reasonably sure.

lol "rm shell.js or if that's too bothersome buy a new machine"