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Responsible Disclosure

At the netShelter foundation, we consider the security of our systems a top priority. But no matter how much effort we put into system security, there can still be vulnerabilities present.

If you discover a vulnerability, we would like to know about it so we can take steps to address it as quickly as possible. We would like to ask you to help us better protect our clients and our systems. Please read our policy entirely before submitting any report and don’t submit non-security issues/bugs or feature requests as vulnerability reports, as these do not qualify within the Responsible Disclosure policy.

Not everything is a security issue

netShelter will evaluate each report and check weither this is indeed a security issue. Although within the community many think several items should be a security issue, it actually is not. Some (missing or added) features might create an extra layer of security, but the lack if it does not mean it is a security issue (for us). Also reporting a problem purely based on a scan/report based on e.g. a version does NOT proof any vulnerability, you must show e.g. with a Proof-of-Concept that the item is really vulnerable. Point to some external source with a generic Proof-of-Concept will not suffice, the report has to be reproduceable on it’s own. Over time we received many reports that we have rejected for just that reason. The following items are NOT classified as a security issue and therefor by default rejected:

  • The lack of, and/or, missing DNS records such as SPF, Dane, DKIM, etc.
  • The lack of, and/or, missing (http(s)) headers such as HSTS, iFrames, CSP, etc.
  • The disclosure of publicly known information, such as open directories, public files, GIT files, etc.
  • The disclosure of publicly known software informatie, such as version, branch, etc.
  • The availability of open ports/services, suchs as SSH, FTP, etc.
  • Sending DDoS attacks and then claim the network is vulnerable.

Scope of the network

netShelter supports many projects as such you might find vulnerable programs or systems within our network, however only systems directly operated by netshelter are within the scope of this Responsible Disclosure Policy. If the report is for another project we will help you to get into contact with the project’s maintainer(s) and if they do not respond contact them on your behalf.

We do not provide a detailed lists of systems and items that are within scope, so if there is a system out there you must find them on your own.

What we dont allow

We do not allow security researchers to send (D)DoS attacks, do extreme heaving scanning or other actions that (might) cause problems with our services. If you think a targetted action is warrented you can discuss this with our CERT team.

Also if a security researcher continously sends bogus reports or knowningly causes problems within our infrastructure they are permanently exempt from the responsible disclosure program.

Please do the following

  • Read the entire policy before submitting. Sending in reports that obviously do not qualify will not help you in future reports!
  • E-mail your findings to cert {at} netshelter .org. Additional contacts and GPG key can be found at our contact page
  • Aggregate your findings relating to the same platform, the same problem on multiple location is one single report.
  • Do not take advantage of the vulnerability or problem you have discovered, for example by downloading more data than necessary to demonstrate the vulnerability or deleting or modifying other people’s data
  • Do not reveal the problem to others until it has been resolved
  • Do not use attacks on physical security, social engineering, distributed denial of service, spam or applications of third parties.
  • Do provide sufficient information to reproduce the problem, so we will be able to resolve it as quickly as possible. To qualify your report, you must should a vulnerability. Usually, the IP address or the URL of the affected system and a description of the vulnerability will be sufficient, but complex vulnerabilities may require further explanation.
  • The Responsible Disclosure program is not a discussion forum, if we reject your report … then we will not accept it. We decide what we deem a security issue!

What we promise

  • We will respond to your report within 5 business days with our evaluation of the report and an expected resolution date.
  • If you have followed the instructions above, we will not take any legal action against you in regard to the report.
  • We will handle your report with strict confidentiality, and not pass on your personal details to third parties without your permission.
  • We will keep you informed of the progress towards resolving the problem.
  • We will inform you if we accepted your report as a found security issue or that we deny the report as the reported issue and/or Proof-of-Concept does not work or qualify within the program.
  • In the public information concerning the problem reported, we will give your name as the discoverer of the problem (unless you desire otherwise).
  • As a token of our gratitude for your assistance, we offer a reward for every accepted report of a security problem that was not yet known to us. The amount of the reward will be determined based on the severity of the leak and the quality of the report.
  • We strive to resolve all problems as quickly as possible, and we would like to play an active role in the ultimate publication on the problem after it is resolved.