Scanners and unpublished vulnerabilities - Full Disclosure

From: Alfred Huger (ahat_private)
Date: Tue May 28 2002 - 11:05:43 PDT

  • Next message: Ryan Russell: "Re: Scanners and unpublished vulnerabilities - Full Disclosure"

    Heya all,
    
    Most of you who are long time users of this list know I tend to avoid
    conversations on-list about full-disclosure. I'm of the opinion it's a
    religious discussion with little or no merit for debate given that people
    are unlikely to move from their current position.
    
    Having said this every now and then something does occur within our
    industry to spur discussion. In this case I came across something which
    directly impacts the Pen-Testing arena and I would like to throw it out
    for open discussion. The event in question is a new Vendor Notification
    Alert Scheme the folks over at NGSSoftware announced yesterday. The
    announcement can (and should be) read at:
    
    http://www.nextgenss.com/news/vna.html
    
    In brief they are now unloading limited details to the public about
    vulnerabilities they have notified vendors about. Their reasoning behind
    this is well thought out and I suggest you read the announcement before
    jumping to a visceral conclusion one way or another. The way this impacts
    the Pen-testing community is that these vulnerabilities which are in the
    process (presumably) of being fixed are actively being coded into the
    Typhon II Vulnerability Assessment Scanner from NGSSoftware. This
    obviously is a significant issue which I suspect many of you out there
    have opinions on. I have my own but I'll hold out on commenting till the
    conversation gets under way (if it actually does so).
    
    Lastly, before you post a reply - please read the provided URL. And for
    those of you who are entirely disinterested in threads like this, please
    accept my apologies in advance.
    
    -al
    
    
    VP Engineering
    SecurityFocus
    "Vae Victis"
    
    
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