[Full-disclosure] Seeking comment on disclosure articles

Ben Bucksch news at bucksch.org
Fri Jan 12 13:34:21 GMT 2007


I hope you realize that you open a highly controversial subject, i.e 
flamewar. My current approach is:

Basic idea is that vendors should have the ability to fix them without 
the public exploiting it at the same time, but even during the secret 
time, various parties will see the bug, so this time is highly 
dangerous, so it must be kept to the minimum. Exploits should be fixed 
within 7 days, from first report to shipping fix.

I notify the vendor in advance, via security at example.com and other 
addresses. I cc the press. I expect a first response within 24 hours 
about where the message is routed. I set a deadline of 7 days. I want to 
know about the progress and final fix, because most often, the proposed 
fix will not entirely fix the problem. If I don't see the vendor as 
treating this with enough priority or pressure, he gets 1 or 2 warnings, 
and if the treatment doesn't improve, I publish the bug on the "Full 
Disclosure" mailing list. As soon as the fix ships, the bugs gets 
published, and a few days later, all details get published.

These are the ground rules. There may be reasons to immediately publish 
without pre-notification, e.g. when the bug is too obvious. Under no 
circumstance should a fix take longer than one month.




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