If you used your nop sled in a stenographic fashion (ie: each type of NOP can be decoded as some piece of information) you would be pretty close when it comes to RNA virus replication. For that matter, some computer viruses purposely mutate the nop sled to avoid creating scan strings, so there are a number of similarities to be had as long as each mutation still performs the necessary function.
I think the scariest thing about this is if this was a PR stunt, the release of an unknown vuln could be completely controlled by whoever knew about it. Best case scenario is a relationships between Microsoft and the five eyes. It could have just as easily been China, a independent group or whatever. It's even possible that the top of Microsoft and/or NSA might not even know. But if it wasn't planned, no one would admit it anyway.
