Government's Directive: Responsible Disclosure of Software Flaws

The government is urging "white hat" hackers to search for security flaws in software, but also wants them to only pass information about those flaws on to software vendors and the government, not to the rest of the security community as . . . The government is urging "white hat" hackers to search for security flaws in software, but also wants them to only pass information about those flaws on to software vendors and the government, not to the rest of the security community as is common practice today.

Speaking at the annual Black Hat Conference of Information Technology Professionals in Las Vegas Wednesday, Richard Clarke, President Bush's special advisor for cyber space security, said security professionals have an obligation to be responsible with the disclosure of security vulnerabilities. They should first report vulnerabilities to the vendor who makes the software in which the vulnerability is found, and then tell the government if the vendor doesn't take action.

Only after a patch for the vulnerability is distributed, he said, should others be notified about the vulnerability.

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