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docs: clarify security-bugs disclosure policy
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I think we need to soften the language a bit.  It might scare folks
off, especially the:

	 We prefer to fully disclose the bug as soon as possible.

which is not really the case.  Linus says:

	It's not full disclosure, it's not coordinated disclosure,
	and it's not "no disclosure".  It's more like just "timely
	open fixes".

I changed a bit of the wording in here, but mostly to remove the word
"disclosure" since it seems to mean very specific things to people
that we do not mean here.

Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Dan Williams <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <[email protected]>
Acked-by: Kees Cook <[email protected]>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <[email protected]>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <[email protected]>
Cc: Alan Cox <[email protected]>
Cc: Andrea Arcangeli <[email protected]>
Cc: Andy Lutomirski <[email protected]>
Cc: Tim Chen <[email protected]>
Cc: Alexander Viro <[email protected]>
Cc: Andrew Morton <[email protected]>
Cc: Mark Rutland <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <[email protected]>
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hansendc authored and Jonathan Corbet committed Mar 9, 2018
1 parent 6234c7b commit 7f5d465
Showing 1 changed file with 13 additions and 11 deletions.
24 changes: 13 additions & 11 deletions Documentation/admin-guide/security-bugs.rst
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -29,18 +29,20 @@ made public.
Disclosure
----------

The goal of the Linux kernel security team is to work with the
bug submitter to bug resolution as well as disclosure. We prefer
to fully disclose the bug as soon as possible. It is reasonable to
delay disclosure when the bug or the fix is not yet fully understood,
the solution is not well-tested or for vendor coordination. However, we
expect these delays to be short, measurable in days, not weeks or months.
A disclosure date is negotiated by the security team working with the
bug submitter as well as vendors. However, the kernel security team
holds the final say when setting a disclosure date. The timeframe for
disclosure is from immediate (esp. if it's already publicly known)
The goal of the Linux kernel security team is to work with the bug
submitter to understand and fix the bug. We prefer to publish the fix as
soon as possible, but try to avoid public discussion of the bug itself
and leave that to others.

Publishing the fix may be delayed when the bug or the fix is not yet
fully understood, the solution is not well-tested or for vendor
coordination. However, we expect these delays to be short, measurable in
days, not weeks or months. A release date is negotiated by the security
team working with the bug submitter as well as vendors. However, the
kernel security team holds the final say when setting a timeframe. The
timeframe varies from immediate (esp. if it's already publicly known bug)
to a few weeks. As a basic default policy, we expect report date to
disclosure date to be on the order of 7 days.
release date to be on the order of 7 days.

Coordination
------------
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