All this week, the security community has been abuzz with the public dump of NSA-linked exploits. The hacker or hackers who released them, The Shadow Brokers, have indicated they will give more material to the winner of an ongoing bitcoin auction, and at least a few people are trying to get their hands on the promised goods.
You might that think that the sale of NSA-linked exploits would be very serious business. But that hasn’t stopped someone from bombarding the relevant bitcoin address with a series of payments spelling out the lyrics to Rick Astley’s infamous song, “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
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On Wednesday, the following addresses sent tiny payments of bitcoin to The Shadow Brokers:
1never9kNNkr27UseZSHnaEHg1z8v3Mbb
1gonnaV3MFNjymS4RGvUbHACstiS8aSYz
1giveGEk184Gwep2KT4UBPTcE9oqWzCVR
1youKBMLEohsexdZtkvnTzHnc4iU7Ffty
1upAbpBEWQ467QNT7i4vBMVPzSfQ3sqoQ
1never9kNNkr27UseZSHnaEHg1z8v3Mbb
1gonnaV3MFNjymS4RGvUbHACstiS8aSYz
11etAyypstpXLQpTgoYmYzT8M2foBSBe1
1youKBMLEohsexdZtkvnTzHnc4iU7Ffty
1downAsBbRQcBfUj8rgQomqhRsNFf1jMo
To top it all off, the 10 transactions were all for 0.001337 bitcoin. Very leet.
Although some of the exploits included in the dump have been confirmed as legitimate, the auction itself may be a farse: The Shadow Brokers are asking for the audacious sum of 1 million bitcoins, or around $500 million, and have not detailed what exactly it is they apparently have for sale.
On Wednesday, the current highest bidder told Motherboard they “have a feeling nothing will come out of it, but worth a shot.”
Even before this latest Rickroll, the auction was always a bit of a joke.