[This was originally published on the OSVDB blog.]
Tonight, shortly before retiring from a long day of vulnerability import, I caught a tweet mentioning a web site about reporting vulnerabilities. Created on 15-aug-2013 per whois, the footer shows it was written by Fraser Scott, aka @zeroXten on Twitter.
I love focused web sites that are informative, and make a point in their simplicity. Of course, most of these sites are humorous or parody, or simply making fun of the common Internet user.
This time, the web site is directly related to what we do. I want to be very clear here; I like the goal of this site. I like the simplistic approach to helping the reader decide which path is best for them. I want to see this site become the top result when searching for “how do I disclose a vulnerability?” This commentary is only meant to help the author improve the site. Please, take this advice to heart, and don’t hesitate if you would like additional feedback. [Update: After starting this blog last night, before publishing this morning, he already reached out. Awesome.]
Under the ‘What’ category, there are three general disclosure options:
NON DISCLOSURE, RESPONSIBLE DISCLOSURE, and FULL DISCLOSURE
First, you are missing a fourth option of ‘limited disclosure’. Researchers can announce they have found a vulnerability in given software, state the implications, and be done with it. Public reports of code execution in some software will encourage the vendor to prioritize the fix, as customers may begin putting pressure on them. Adding a video showing the code execution reinforces the severity. It often doesn’t help a VDB like ours, because such a disclosure typically doesn’t have enough actionable information. However, it is one way a researcher can disclose, and still protect themselves.
Second, “responsible”? No. The term was possibly coined by Steve Christey, further used by Russ Cooper, that was polarized by Cooper as well as Scott Culp at Microsoft (“Information Anarchy”, really?), in a (successful) effort to brand researchers as “irresponsible” if they don’t conform to vendor disclosure demands. The appropriate term more widely recognized, and fair to both sides, is that of “coordinated” disclosure. Culp’s term forgets that vendors can be irresponsible if they don’t prioritize critical vulnerabilities while customers are known to be vulnerable with public exploit code floating about. Since then, Microsoft and many other companies have adopted “coordinated” to refer to the disclosure process.
Under the ‘Who’ category, there are more things to consider:
SEND AN EMAIL
These days, it is rare to see domains following RFC-compliant addresses. That is a practice mostly lost to the old days. Telling readers to try to “Contact us” tab/link that invariably shows on web pages is better. Oh wait, you do that. However, that comes well after the big header reading TECHNICAL SUPPORT which may throw people off.
As a quick side note: “how to notifying them of security issues”. This is one of many spelling or grammar errors. Please run the text through a basic grammar checker.
Under the ‘How’ category:
STAY ANONYMOUS
This is excellent advice, except that using Tor bit since there are serious questions about the security/anonymity of it. If researchers are worried, they should look at a variety of options including using a coffee shop’s wireless, hotel wireless, etc.
BE YOURSELF
This is also a great point, but more to the point, make sure your mail is polite and NOT THREATENING. Don’t threaten to disclose on your own timeline. See how the vendor handles the vulnerability report without any indication of disclosing it. Give them benefit of the doubt. If you get hints they are stalling at some point, then gently suggest it may be in the best interest of their customers to disclose. Remind them that vulnerabilities are rarely discovered by a single person and that they can’t assume you are the only one who has found it. You are just the only one who apparently decided to help the vendor.
THE DISCLOSURE
Post to Full-Disclosure sure, or other options that may be more beneficial to you. Bugtraq has a history of stronger moderation, they tend to weed out crap. Send it directly to vulnerability databases and let them publish it anonymously. VDBs like Secunia generally validate all vulnerabilities before posting to their database. That may help you down the road if your intentions are called into question. Post to the OSS-security mail list if the vulnerability is in open-source software, so you get the community involved. For that list, getting a CVE identifier and having others on the list verifying or sanity checking your findings, it gives more positive attention to the technical issues instead of the politics of disclosure.
FOR SALE
Using a bug bounty system is a great idea as it keeps the new researcher from dealing with disclosure politics generally. Let people experienced with the process, who have an established relationship and history with the vendor handle it. However, don’t steer newcomers to ZDI immediately. In fact, don’t name them specifically unless you have a vested interest in helping them, and if so, state it. Instead, break it down into vendor bug bounty programs and third-party programs. Provide a link to Bugcrowd’s excellent resource on a list of current bounty programs.
FINALLY
The fine print of course. Under CITATIONS, I love that you reference the Errata legal threats page, but this should go much higher on the page. Make sure new disclosers know the potential mess they are getting into. We know people don’t read the fine print. This could also be a good lead-in to using a third-party bounty or vulnerability handling service.
It’s great that you make this easy to share with everyone and their dog, but please consider getting a bit more feedback before publishing a site like this. It appears you did this in less than a day, when an extra 24 hours shows you could have made a stronger offering. You are clearly eager to make it better. You have already reached out to me, and likely Steve Christey if not others. As I said, with some edits and fix-ups, this will be a great resource.