Legal & ComplianceSecurity Compliance

Standard RFC 9116 security.txt & Coordinated Disclosure Policy

Give ethical security researchers a safe, standardized channel to report vulnerabilities before public zero-day disclosure. Includes PGP key and Safe Harbor clauses.

security-vulnerability-disclosure-policy-security-txt.md•36 lines•230 words
# Vulnerability Disclosure Policy & RFC 9116 security.txt

At [Company Name], we prioritize the security and confidentiality of our users. We welcome coordinated vulnerability reports from independent security researchers and ethical hackers.

---

## 1. RFC 9116 security.txt Specification
Place this exact text file at `https://domain.com/.well-known/security.txt`:

```http
# Official Security Contact
Contact: mailto:[email protected]
Expires: 2027-12-31T23:59:59.000Z
Preferred-Languages: en, tr
Encryption: https://domain.com/pgp-key.txt
Canonical: https://domain.com/.well-known/security.txt
Policy: https://domain.com/security-policy
Acknowledgments: https://domain.com/hall-of-fame
```

---

## 2. Coordinated Disclosure Guidelines
We ask all security researchers to abide by the following ethical guidelines:
- **Do No Harm:** Avoid privacy violations, destruction of data, and interruption or degradation of our services (e.g., DoS/DDoS attacks are strictly out of scope).
- **Zero Data Exfiltration:** If you identify sensitive data, do not download, view, or retain more data than necessary to demonstrate proof-of-concept.
- **Confidentiality:** Please give our security engineering team **90 days** to investigate and deploy patches before publicly disclosing any vulnerability.

---

## 3. Legal Safe Harbor Guarantee
If you make a good faith effort to comply with this policy during your security research, we pledge:
- We will consider your research **authorized** under relevant anti-hacking laws (including CFAA and computer crime legislation).
- We will not initiate or support any legal action against you regarding your research activities.
- We will work transparently with you to validate, triage, and acknowledge your contribution in our Security Hall of Fame.
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How to Use & Customize This Template

1

Customize Contact & Expiry

Update the security contact email, PGP public key link, and future expiration timestamp.

2

Publish to /.well-known/security.txt

Host the plain text file under the root `/.well-known/security.txt` path as required by RFC 9116.

3

Publish Full Policy Page

Add the Markdown policy to your website footer under `/security` or `/vulnerability-disclosure`.

Pro Formatting & Best Practice Tips

  • RFC 9116 mandates that security.txt must contain an `Expires` field set no further than 1 year into the future.
  • Always offer a PGP public key so researchers can encrypt sensitive zero-day vulnerability details.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the /.well-known/ directory standard for security.txt?

RFC 9116 defines `/.well-known/security.txt` as the universal machine-readable location so automated security scanners and researchers can discover contacts automatically.