This is a pretty dangerous take. The reality is that the vast majority of security vulnerabilities in software are not actively exploited, beause no one knows about them. Unless you have proof of active exploitation, you are much more likely to hurt users by publicly disclosing a 0-day than by responsibly disclosing it to the developer and giving them a reasonable amount of time to come out with a patch. Even if the developers are acting badly. Making a vulnerability public is putting a target on every user, not on the developer.
Your take is the dangerous one. I don’t disagree that
> the vast majority of security vulnerabilities in software are not actively exploited
However I’d say your explanation that it’s
> because no one knows about them
is not necessarily the reason why.
If the vendor or developer isn’t fixing things, going public is the correct option. (I agree some lead time / attempt at coordinated disclosure is preferable here.)
> (I agree some lead time / attempt at coordinated disclosure is preferable here.)
Then I think we are in agreement overall. I took your initial comment to mean that as soon as you discover a vulnerability, you should make it public. If we agree that the process should always be to disclose it to the project, wait some amount of time, and only then make it public - then I think we are actually on the exact same page.
Now, for the specific amount of time: ideally, you'd wait until the project has a patch available, if they are collaborating and prioritizing things appropriately. However, if they are dragging their feet and/or not even acknowledging that a fix is needed, then I also agree that you should set a fixed time as a last ditch attempt to get them to fix it (say, "2 weeks from today"), and then make it public as a 0-day.
Indeed, we’re in agreement. Though I’d suggest a fixed disclosure timeframe at time of reporting. Maybe with an option to extend in cases where the fix is more complex than anticipated.
My point is: if you found a vulnerability and know that it is actively being exploited (say, you find out through contacts, or see it on your own systems, or whatever), then I would agree that it is ethical to publicize it immediately, maybe without even giving the creators prior notice: the vulnerability is already known by at least some bad actors, and users should be made aware immediately and take action.
However, if you don't know that it is being actively exploited, then the right course of action is to disclose it secretly to the creators, and work with them to coordinate on a timely patch before any public disclosure. Exactly how timely will depend on yours and their judgement of many factors. Even if the team is showing very bad judgement from your point of view, and acting dismissively; even if you have a history with them of doing this - you still owe it to the users of the code to at least try, and to at least give some unilateral but reasonable timeline in which you will disclose.
Even if you don't want to do this free work, the alternative is not to publicly disclose: it's to do nothing. In general, the users are still safer with an unknown vulnerability than they are with a known one that the developers aren't fixing. You don't have any responsibility to waste your own time to try to work with disagreeable people, but you also don't have the right to put users at risk just because you found an issue.
