If you merely say that you observed a crash in someone else’s software when a certain argument is passed, and that makes you liable for their bug, we are all in big trouble.
Well, there is a difference. First, that certain argument (malformed certificate) was not randomly encountered, it was specifically constructed to trigger the vulnerability (Was reverse-engineering involved? I don't know). Second, this bug report not only discloses the fact that the vulnerability exists, but also provides a working example for any script-kiddie to use as an exploit. Third, the bug was not privately disclosed to software vendor, but was released to the public.
From https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/22973/if-i-find... it seems that would be criminal in UK or Germany, no idea what could've happen in US. On one hand, you have First Amendment, on other hand, there is an EULA.
If you merely say that you observed a crash in someone else’s software when a certain argument is passed, and that makes you liable for their bug, we are all in big trouble.