Skip to content

Vulnerability
Disclosure Policy

As a provider of cutting-edge security software, and research, we take security issues very seriously and recognize the importance of privacy, security, and community involvement. As such, we are committed to addressing and reporting security issues through a coordinated and constructive approach designed to drive the greatest protection for technology users. Whether you’re a user of Contrast Security solutions, a software developer, or simply a security enthusiast, you’re an important part of this process.

This policy describes what systems and types of research are covered under this policy, how to send us vulnerability reports, and how long we ask security researchers to wait before publicly disclosing vulnerabilities.

We encourage you to contact us to report potential vulnerabilities in our systems.

 

Authorization 

If you make a good faith effort to comply with this policy during your security research, we will consider your research to be authorized. We will work with you to understand and resolve the issue quickly, and Contrast Security will not recommend or pursue legal action related to your research. Should legal action be initiated by a third party against you for activities that were conducted in accordance with this policy, we will make this authorization known.

Scope

This policy does not apply to the following systems and services:
  • Amazon Web Services
  • support.contrastsecurity.com
  • Other third party service providers supporting Contrast assets. Vulnerabilities should be reported directly to the vendor according to their disclosure policy (if any)
This policy DOES apply to the following systems and services:

* NOTE: there are some projects in Contrast-Security-OSS which are intentionally vulnerable applications, and for those we know there are vulnerabilities.

If you aren’t sure whether a system is in scope or not, contact us at security@contrastsecurity.com before starting your research. 

Though we develop and maintain other internet-accessible systems or services, we ask that active research and testing only be conducted on the systems and services covered by the scope of this document. If there is a particular system not in scope that you think merits testing, please contact us to discuss it first. We will increase the scope of this policy over time. 

Guidelines

Under this policy, “research” means activities in which you:

  • Notify us as soon as possible after you discover a real or potential security issue.
  • Make every effort to avoid privacy violations, degradation of user experience, disruption to production systems, and destruction or manipulation of data.
  • Only use exploits to the extent necessary to confirm a vulnerability’s presence. Do not use an exploit to compromise or exfiltrate data, establish persistent command line access, or use the exploit to pivot to other systems.
  • Provide us a reasonable amount of time to resolve the issue before you disclose it publicly.
  • Do not submit a high volume of low-quality reports.

Once you’ve established that a vulnerability exists or encounters any sensitive data (including personally identifiable information, financial information, or proprietary information or trade secrets of any party), you must stop your test, notify us immediately, and not disclose this data to anyone else.

Test methods

The following test methods are not authorized:

  • Network denial of service (DoS or DDoS) tests or other tests that impair access to or damage a system or data
  • Physical testing (e.g. office access, open doors, tailgating), social engineering (e.g. phishing, vishing), or any other non-technical vulnerability testing

Reporting a vulnerability or security issue on in-scope Contrast assets

We accept vulnerability reports via security@contrastsecurity.com but would prefer all vulnerability submissions go through our Bug Bounty program at bugcrowd.com/contrast-security. Reports may be submitted anonymously. If you share contact information with us, we will acknowledge receipt of your report within 3 business days.

We do not support PGP-encrypted emails. For particularly sensitive information, reach out to us first and we can send a secure transfer portal link for sensitive data upload.

By submitting a vulnerability, you acknowledge that you have no expectation of payment and that you expressly waive any future pay claims against Contrast Security related to your submission.

What we would like to see from you

In order to help us triage and prioritize submissions, we recommend that reports: 

  • Describe the location the vulnerability was discovered and the potential impact of exploitation. 
  • Offer a detailed description of the steps needed to reproduce the vulnerability (proof of concept scripts, screenshots, or reproduction videos are helpful). 
  • If the report is based on a tool or scan, please triage the results before submitting. We will return scan data to you if not initially triaged. 
  • Are submitted in English, if possible.

What you can expect from us

  • When you choose to share your contact information with us, we commit to coordinating with you as openly and as quickly as possible.
  • Within 3 business days, we will acknowledge that your report has been received.

To the best of our ability, we will confirm the existence of the vulnerability to you and be as transparent as possible about what steps we are taking during the remediation process, including on issues or challenges that may delay resolution. Our typical process flow would be similar to the following:

  1. Researcher submits vulnerability details to security@contrastsecurity.com, or our official Bug Bounty program at bugcrowd.com/contrast-security.
  2. Contrast Security investigates and verifies the vulnerability.
  3. Contrast Security rates the vulnerability based on an internal risk ranking methodology that includes likelihood and exploitability elements. Once risk is determined, the timelines for addressing vulnerabilities are: 

    Critical: 7 days

    High: 30 days

    Medium: 90 days

    Low/Informational: 180 days 

    There may be cases where exceptions or risk acceptance occurs, which is determined and approved by the CISO.

  4. Contrast Security publicly announces the vulnerability in the release notes of the update. Contrast Security may also issue additional public announcements, for example via social media, our blog, and media.
  5. Release notes (and blog posts when issued) include a reference to the person/people who reported the vulnerability, unless the reporter(s) would prefer to stay anonymous.
  6. We will maintain an open dialogue to discuss issues and any public disclosure by the researcher.

Contrast Security will endeavor to keep the reporter apprised of every step in this process as it occurs.

Security issues found by Contrast Security research

Once we have found a vulnerability in another vendor’s products, Contrast Security takes a series of steps to address the issue:

  1. Contrast Security will keep any communication confidential regarding the vulnerability until the completion of the disclosure process.
  2. Contrast Security will attempt to contact the appropriate product vendor by email and telephone.
  3. Contrast Security will provide the vulnerability details to the vendor.
  4. Contrast Security will send a notification to CERT/CC 15 days after the first attempt at contacting the vendor.
  5. In keeping with CERT/CC's 45-day disclosure policy, Contrast Security and CERT/CC will prepare and publish an advisory detailing the vulnerability at least 60 days after initial attempts at disclosure at stage #2 above, barring extenuating circumstances. This advisory will be made available to the general public via Contrast Security’s blog and social media. It is likely there may also be some media interest, depending on the details of the findings.