RE: Question About Ethics and Full Disclosure

["Drew Copley" <dcopley () eeye com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom [mailto:tommy () providesecurity com] 
> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 12:43 PM
> To: frogman () infosecwar net
> Cc: bugtraq () securityfocus com; 
> security-basics () securityfocus com; 
> vuln-dev () securityfocus com; webappsec () securityfocus com
> Subject: Question About Ethics and Full Disclosure
>
>
> I have sat on 2 vulnerabilities for a shopping cart for over 
> a year and
> nothing has changed.  Now I have found a 3rd with new 
> services added to this
> shopping cart. 
>
> I have emailed support several times but NEVER get a response.
> As a security professional and not to be Unethical what would be a
> recommended path to follow?
>       
> * Notify their customers (several 100)
> * Notify the Payment Gateways they are Authorized to use 
> (VeriSign, PayPal, Authorize.NET)
> * Be a total A** and just release it to all the mailing lists 
> and at DEFCON


Is it ethical to not let these customers know that you have an
open door into their systems?

Is it ethical to not let them know that someone else may have the
same open door into their systems?

You can land in hot water if you email the customers directly. Customer
lists are generally considered proprietary information. 

You can let the customers know through posting to full disclosure
lists.

Post the time details and the contact details.

I don't see how you possibly could have sat on this for a year in
good conscience.


> BTW...I have sent several emails to various parts of VeriSign 
> and NOBODY has
> responded as to the proper person to notify within the 
> organization about
> this. I chose VeriSign because this cart is at the Top of Their List!
>
> IF anyone knows who to contact from VeriSign, authorize.net 
> and PayPal about
> this please email me directly.

You seem to be going beyond what your role should be in this. 

That can give you legal problems if you are not careful.


> Thanks,
>
> Tom Ryan