[This was originally published on the OSVDB blog.]
This has come up in the past, and again more recently. Is information found on a vendor website, such as a changelog or bugzilla entry, fair game for inclusion in a vulnerability database? Some vendors seem to think this material is off limits. If a person keeps a directory of material regarding vulnerabilities, and it is not password protected or restricted in any way, are we to assume it may be private in some fashion?
The recent complaint does bring up another issue though; assigning vulnerable versions to the database entry. In this case, Secunia apparently listed 1.x when it was a specific release. SecurityFocus’ BID database tends to do this on many entries, listing all prior releases of a product as vulnerable when it hasn’t necessarily been tested. That may be a safe assumption with some software, but not always. As new features are added to a software package, so are new bugs and vulnerabilities.
VDBs using public information such as bug trackers and changelogs may have a long term negative impact though. The Caudium Group has closed its bug tracker to the public in response to Secunia’s vulnerability listing. If more vendors follow suit, this will make more detailed information unavailable to VDBs and impact the quality of the information we can provide.