> This means that a malicious attacker on your network, or a nation state that has access to your ISP can easily perform a MITM attack and replace the network response with any malicious executable of their choosing.

I am pretty sure, a nation state wanting to hack an individual's system has way more effective tools at their disposal.

Presumably, all Windows installations running on AMD are auto-executing this auto-update program.

I am pretty sure nation states hire people smart enough to use whatever works.

What the hell is more effective than getting root with a trivial MITM?

Not only is it effective, it's stealthy, in that it doesn't out you. It's obviously possible to both find and exploit it without a huge investment, which means nobody knows you're a nation state when you use it. You don't have to risk burning any really arcane zero-days or any hard to replace back doors.

Nation states are absolutely going to use things like that. And so is everybody else.

I guess one should keep their eyes out on the next big BGP hijack.