RE: How to report a Vulnerability to a Company

From: Paul Melson (pmelson@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Jan 08 2008 - 14:43:52 EST


> Lets say I found a vulnerability in some company's website ( e.g SQL
Injection ) and that
> vulnerability is crucial to the company. How do I ethically report it to
the Company and have
> credit for that.
>
> Can I go and say "Hey! I found a vuln in your website with gives me the
password back for any > user" Or doing this kinda stuff is not ethical at
all unless you make a SLA with the company
> before doing any your own pentest.

If you didn't have express written permission from the owner of the site,
then I think you've already blown your chance at being ethical here. And to
now try and also receive credit for your finding means that you've got to be
willing to risk their reaction, which may not go your way at all.

I think your best option is a combination of humility and anonymity and a
lesson learned about why you don't test without permission.

PaulM

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