Introduction

A vulnerability is a technical issue with any systems used and managed by Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), which attackers or hackers could use to exploit the system and its users.

The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance on how to report a security vulnerability for any IT services or systems used by WFD.

This disclosure policy applies to any member of the public considering reporting security vulnerabilities to us. We recommend reading the policy in full before reporting a vulnerability.

If you think you have found a technical security vulnerability on any of our services, report it using Hacker One: submit a vulnerability report.

You will not be paid a reward for reporting a vulnerability (known as a ‘bug bounty’).

Reporting

All vulnerabilities can be reported with WFD via Hacker One: submit a vulnerability report.

When reporting a vulnerability please ensure you include: 

• The website URL or IP address
• A brief description of the type of vulnerability
• Steps to reproduce the issue*

*These should be a benign, non-destructive, proof of concept. This helps to ensure that the report can be triaged quickly and accurately. It also reduces the likelihood of duplicate reports, or malicious exploitation of some vulnerabilities, such as sub-domain takeovers.

Further guidance

You must not…

• Break any applicable law or regulation.
• Access unnecessary, excessive or significant amounts of data. For example, 2 or 3 records is enough to demonstrate most vulnerabilities, such as an enumeration or direct object reference vulnerability.
• Modify data in WFD systems or services.
• Use high-intensity invasive or destructive scanning tools to find vulnerabilities.
• Attempt or report any form of denial of service, for example, overwhelming a service with a high volume of requests.
• Disrupt the WFD services or systems.
• Submit reports detailing non-exploitable vulnerabilities, or reports indicating that the services do not fully align with “best practice”, for example missing security headers.
• Submit reports detailing TLS configuration weaknesses, for example “weak” cipher suite support or the presence of TLS1.0 support.
• Communicate any vulnerabilities or associated details other than by means described in this policy.
• Social engineer, ‘phish’ or physically attack the WFD staff or infrastructure.
• Demand financial compensation to disclose any vulnerabilities.

You must…

• Always comply with data protection laws and regulation and must not violate the privacy of any data WFD holds. You must not, for example, share, redistribute or fail to properly secure data retrieved from the systems or services.
• Securely delete all data retrieved during your research as soon as it is no longer required or within 1 month of the vulnerability being resolved, whichever occurs first (or as otherwise required by data protection law).
• Conform to the HackerOne Code of Conduct: https://www.hackerone.com/policies/code-of-conduct 

What happens after reporting an issue

Once your report is submitted, we will aim to respond within 5 working days and to process your report within 10 working days. We will also aim to keep you informed of our progress. 

We prioritise the correction of vulnerabilities based on the impact, severity and exploit complexity of a vulnerability. Reports might take some time to triage or address due to the complex nature of some issues. You should leave 14 days between status inquiries as this allows our teams to focus on remediation of the vulnerability. 

We will notify you when the reported vulnerability is remediated. You may be invited to confirm the remediation activity has successfully fixed the issue. Once your vulnerability has been resolved, we welcome requests to disclose your report. 

Legal considerations

This policy is designed to be compatible with common vulnerability disclosure good practices. 

It does not give you permission to act in any manner that is inconsistent with the law, or which might cause WFD’s partner organisations to be in breach of any legal obligations. 

However, if legal action is initiated by a third party against you and you have complied with this policy, we can take steps to make it known that your actions were conducted in compliance with this policy.