[Full-Disclosure] Re: Oracle Security Contact

From: Steven M. Christey (coleyat_private)
Date: Tue Nov 05 2002 - 20:32:04 PST

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    On the full-disclosure list, low halo asked:
    
    >Could someone please give me the security contact address for Oracle
    >Corporation?  It seems as though their marketing department's
    >"Unbreakable" slogan makes them think that its OK to bury their
    >security advisories & contact info deep within their site somewhere.
    
    It's not immediately obvious when navigating from the www.oracle.com
    home page, but it's listed at:
    http://otn.oracle.com/deploy/security/alerts.htm
    
      secalert_usat_private
    
    I found this by doing a site search on "vulnerability," which led me
    to the advisory page.
    
    Very few vendor home pages (open/closed source, freeware or not) seem
    to make it easy to find a security contact, or advisory page, from the
    home page.
    
    Here's a quick look I just did from the home pages of various software
    providers.  Your Mileage May Vary.
    
    
    from www.microsoft.com: click on "Security" in the resources menu,
    click on "more bulletins and patches," go to "contact Microsoft
    security"
    
    from www.redhat.com: there's no "security" link on the front page.
    The "community resources" menu does not mention a security link.  The
    "support & docs" link asks for user registration, but there's an
    "errata" menu on the left hand side.  This gets us to a "security
    alerts" page but I don't see any security POC's there.  There's a
    "Bugzilla" link on the left hand menu, but this leads to the
    bugzilla.redhat.com web site, which requires registration.  The online
    security advisories don't seem to list a security contact.  The
    advisories, when posted to Bugtraq, come from bugzillaat_private and
    not some security-specific email address.  But the advisory does list
    a PGP key at http://www.redhat.com/about/contact/pgpkey.html, which
    suggests that a securityat_private address is available.  On this PGP
    key page, there's a "Red Hat Security Resource Center" menu along with
    a "Security Contacts and Procedures" option.  Then I see that this was
    under the "Enterprise Solutions" web page, which could have been found
    from the www.redhat.com home page had I clicked on the "Enterprise
    Solutions" link instead of the "Support & Docs" link.
    
    from www.suse.de: click "security announcements" and the security
    contact is near the top of the page
    
    from www.debian.com: click "security information" which links to the
    "Debian security FAQ" which has a "How can I reach the security team?"
    question which points to securityat_private
    
    from www.sun.com: I have two main nagivation options, "solutions" or
    "support & training."  I'll try "solutions" since that would have
    worked for Red Hat.  There's a "security" option under "Consulting
    Services" but that's for, well, their consulting services.  But
    there's a "Related Links" whose first item is "Security" which gets us
    to the main security page, and its first link is for the security
    bulletins, which lists security-alertat_private
    
    from www.novell.com: I gasp and reluctantly allow the ActiveX control
    to run, although IE isn't telling me which control I'm allowing.  I
    try a text search for "secur" [security, secure] which seems to find
    something, but it's not highlighted in my browser so I can't tell.
    Emboldened by previous "Solutions" successes, I go there first, but
    this time no luck.  The "support" menu doesn't include a security
    sub-item but I click it anyway and find the Novell security alerts
    page, which includes a form I can use to submit bugs.
    
    from www.mandrake.com: I get redirected to www.linux-mandrake.com and
    go to the Security Updates link, which has the
    security@linux-mandrake.com address.
    
    from www.openbsd.org: I click on the "Security" link and the
    "Reporting problems" section points to deraadtat_private
    
    from www.cisco.com: a "secur" search has similar issues that I had
    with www.novell.com (i.e. it's somewhere in the page but I can't find
    it), though it does show up in a "Networking Solutions & Provisioned
    Services" item.  I click on that and get a big Javascript menu with a
    security option (maybe that was one of the search matches?), so I go
    there, but the page is for various security solutions and not a
    security contact.  I use a drop-down menu to go to tech support,
    search for "secur" and get the SNMP advisory.  I notice a "Contact
    PSIRT" reference but for the sake of experimentation I'll pretend I
    don't know what PSIRT means, I'm looking for "security" people.  So I
    go to the SNMP security advisory, which has a "Cisco Security
    Procedures" section, which then gets me to the PSIRT page and the
    security-alertat_private / psirtat_private addresses.
    
    from www.freebsd.org: click on "Security" and the first section brings
    us to security-officerat_private
    
    from www.hp.com: no matches on "secur".  I try "support and drivers"
    and then "HP technical support."  There's a "security" option under
    software, which brings me to a page that tells me how I can "receive
    security bulletins by email," which isn't quite what I'm looking for
    but close enough.  This tells me I have to go to the "HP IT Resource
    Center" web site, register, then log in... but I'm not really in the
    mood to register right now, I've already got enough web accounts to
    manage.  I just happen to notice a small "security" link on the top of
    the page that hasn't been visited before, so I go there
    (http://www.hp.com/security/index.html).  There are some drop-down
    menus including particular product categories, so I'll just pick
    "hp-ux" software.  This lists various security products but no
    security contacts or promising links.  I try "all hp internet security
    products and technologies" but that gets me back to a page I've
    already seen.  I try the "contact hp" link, which gets me to
    http://thenew.hp.com/country/us/eng/contact_us.html.  The main page
    doesn't immediately grab me, but the left hand menu says "report a
    software security issue" and I click on it.  This points me to
    security-alertat_private
    
    from www.mozilla.org: see
    http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/ntbugtraq/2002-q2/0095.html
    
    In short, the ease with which security contacts can be found varies
    from site to site, and individual to individual.  There are many
    different "reasonable" paths that somebody might take in finding a
    security contact.
    
    Software providers who wish to simplify vulnerability notification can
    address some of this with prominent links from all of these pages:
    
     - security pages (both the "solutions" and advisory pages)
    
     - the advisories themselves
    
     - tech support
    
     - the "contact us" page.
    
    
    - Steve
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