SECURITY: "curl security for developers"

Describes our security process from a project and curl developer's
perspective.

1 files changed, 91 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/SECURITY b/docs/SECURITY
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..01c9668ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/SECURITY
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+                                  _   _ ____  _
+                              ___| | | |  _ \| |
+                             / __| | | | |_) | |
+                            | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
+                             \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
+
+CURL SECURITY FOR DEVELOPERS
+
+This document is intended to provide guidance to curl developers on how
+security vulnerabilities should be handled.
+
+PUBLISHING INFORMATION
+
+All known and public curl or libcurl related vulnerabilities are listed at
+http://curl.haxx.se/docs/security.html
+
+Security vulnerabilities should not be entered in the project's public bug
+tracker unless the necessary configuration is in place to limit access to the
+issue to only the reporter and the project's security team.
+
+VULNERABILITY HANDLING
+
+The typical process for handling a new security vulnerability is as follows.
+
+No information should be made public about a vulnerability until it is
+formally announced at the end of this process. That means, for example that a
+bug tracker entry must NOT be created to track the issue since that will make
+the issue public and it should not be discussed on any of the project's public
+mailing lists. Also messages associated with any commits should not make
+any reference to the security nature of the commit if done prior to the public
+announcement.
+
+- The person discovering the issue, the reporter, reports the vulnerability
+  privately to curl-security@haxx.se. That's an email alias that reaches a
+  handful of selected and trusted people.
+
+- Messages that do not relate to the reporting or managing of an undisclosed
+  security vulnerability in curl or libcurl are ignored and no further action
+  is required.
+
+- A person in the security team sends an e-mail to the original reporter to
+  acknowledge the report.
+
+- The security team investigates the report and either rejects it or accepts
+  it.
+
+- If the report is rejected, the team writes to the reporter to explain why.
+
+- If the report is accepted, the team writes to the reporter to let him/her
+  know it is accepted and that they are working on a fix.
+
+- The security team discusses the problem, works out a fix, considers the
+  impact of the problem and suggests a release schedule. This discussion
+  should involve the reporter as much as possible.
+
+- The release of the information should be "as soon as possible" and is most
+  often synced with an upcoming release that contains the fix. If the
+  reporter, or anyone else, thinks the next planned release is too far away
+  then a separate earlier release for security reasons should be considered.
+
+- Write a security advisory draft about the problem that explains what the
+  problem is, its impact, which versions it affects, solutions or
+  work-arounds, when the release is out and make sure to credit all
+  contributors properly.
+
+- Request a CVE number from distros@openwall.org[1] when also informing and
+  preparing them for the upcoming public security vulnerability announcement -
+  attach the advisory draft for information. Note that 'distros' won't accept
+  an embargo longer than 19 days.
+
+- Update the "security advisory" with the CVE number.
+
+- The security team commits the fix in a private branch. The commit message
+  should ideally contain the CVE number. This fix is usually also distributed
+  to the 'distros' mailing list to allow them to use the fix prior to the
+  public announcement.
+
+- At the day of the next release, the private branch is merged into the master
+  branch and pushed. Once pushed, the information is accessible to the public
+  and the actual release should follow suit immediately afterwards.
+
+- The project team creates a release that includes the fix.
+
+- The project team announces the release and the vulnerability to the world in
+  the same manner we always announce releases. It gets sent to the
+  curl-announce, curl-library and curl-users mailing lists.
+
+- The security web page on the web site should get the new vulernability
+  mentioned.
+
+[1] = http://oss-security.openwall.org/wiki/mailing-lists/distros