Conjecture: this is done via automated scripts that check for vulnerabilities and then execute the appropriate exploits on them, a la Metasploit. It's a comprehensive binary (or a few of them) that is supposed to be deleted when the work is done. :P
What do you think "tailored access" is? Look at some of the better known former NSA hacking-division people in industry: they were all at NSA in their early 20s.
Then look at the unbelievably shoddy quality of these tools. Are you arguing also that they might themselves not be part of NSA's repertoire? Because I could make the same "opposite of tailored" argument about the tools themselves.
I meant tailored access literally. I assume that the name "Tailored Access" comes from the idea that access is tailored, i.e. custom fit for the specific task at hand.
https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/765514347196084224