WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s pledge to help Silicon Valley technology companies patch the bugs outlined in leaked CIA files has been met with skepticism from the security community.

Assange said he would contact technology companies to privately supply technical details of the hacking techniques and security vulnerabilities that were redacted from the cache of classified documents released to the public.

“We have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed out,” Assange said in a news conference streamed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has claimed diplomatic asylum since 2012.

But members of the security community have dismissed Assange’s hyperbole around the CIA files – collectively nicknamed “Vault 7” – which he described as “exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective”.

Ryan Kalember, SVP of Cybersecurity Strategy at Proofpoint, disagreed.

“There’s nothing earth-shattering,” he said, pointing out that many of the operating systems mentioned in the documents are quite old and have already been updated.

“It seems like the CIA was doing the same stuff cybersecurity researchers do, which is compile lists of vulnerabilities and try to figure out which ones are being exploited in the wild and which ones could be.”

It’s not clear at this point how many, if any, of the vulnerabilities are genuine “zero-days” – those not yet known to vendors, named after the number of days they have to fix them.

Kalember said that the so-called Weeping Angel hack, which uses malware to spy on Samsung smart TVs, has been shown at security conferences for a couple of years and requires physical access to the device.

“The CIA should be embarrassed that they lost control of this cache, but they should also be embarrassed if this is their level of technical sophistication,” said another another security researcher, who did not want to be named. “What they have is pretty unimpressive.”

Both said that the vulnerabilities detailed in the documents are likely to have already been patched by the companies. Apple and Google have both publicly stated this is the case.

There could be more to come, however: Assange has emphasized that the data cache released on Tuesday is only a portion of the total leaked information WikiLeaks holds.

“The fact that Julian Assange is offering to selectively disclose vulnerability information to affected companies is better than revealing it to all and sundry, but it depends on the veracity, accuracy and currency of that information,” said BullGuard CEO Paul Lipman.

“I don’t think WikiLeaks is the first stop for tech companies looking to solve vulnerabilities,” he added.

How do the CIA files compare with the revelations contained in the NSA leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden?

“It’s apples and oranges,” said Kalember. “The Snowden leaks were not only technically interesting but contained a lot of novel stuff that was not known at all.”

He said that with Vault 7, he and other members of the cybersecurity community have spent a lot of time “laughing about funny things on the CIA’s intranet” (like this collection of emoticons) rather than “debating anything interesting from a tech perspective”.

Some researchers were skeptical of WikiLeaks’ motives, pointing to apparent ties between the whistleblowing organization and Russia – despite Assange’s denial.

“Everything they have done over the last few months suggests they are operating as a front for a different leaker [Russia],” said Kalember.

He said that the possible Russian ties as well as WikiLeaks’ track record of publishing identifying information about people (known as “doxxing”) – including millions of women in Turkey – and threats to make an online database of all verified users on Twitter – has diminished confidence in the organization.

“No one in the information security community really trusts him and his motives,” he said.

At the press conference, Assange attempted to counter accusations that he or WikiLeaks had ties to Russian intelligence agencies, describing his operation as “a neutral, digital Switzerland”.

WikiLeaks’ promotion of the CIA files has placed emphasis on a group at the agency called Umbrage, which collects a library of attack techniques produced in other states including, the press release stated, the Russian Federation.

“With Umbrage and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the ‘fingerprints’ of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from,” WikiLeaks said.

This could be interpreted as an attempt by WikiLeaks to undermine the attribution of the DNC hack to the Russians – something that the international security community almost unanimously agrees on.

“They place a lot of emphasis on the fact that the CIA could be using malware to achieve its ends and leave trails that point to people in different directions. Everybody does this, but it’s not going to genuinely undermine proper attribution,” he said.

Is it possible, likely or can you confirm instances where the CIA used Malware to "Attribute" cyberattacks to other nations? Possibly Russia https://t.co/Ay1Ms84TPT — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) March 9, 2017

That hasn’t stopped conservative media figures from embracing the conspiracy theory, amplified by a flood of Twitter bots spouting memes and a similar narrative.

“I think at this point Assange is effectively acting in the service of the Russian government, whether intentionally or not,” said Kalember.