Vulnerability Disclosure Policy

Vulnerability disclosure is the practice of reporting security flaws in computer software or hardware.

This vulnerability disclosure policy applies to any vulnerabilities you are considering reporting to Historic Environment Scotland.

Policy statement

This vulnerability disclosure policy applies to any vulnerabilities you are considering reporting to Historic Environment Scotland.  It is recommended that you read this vulnerability disclosure policy before you report a vulnerability and act in compliance with it.

The time and effort taken by those to report security vulnerabilities according to this policy is valued. However, there are no monetary rewards for vulnerability disclosures.

Reporting

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability, please submit your report to https://vulnerability-reporting.service.security.gov.uk/.  Your report should provide a benign (i.e. non-destructive) proof of exploitation wherever possible.

In your report, please include details of:

• the website, IP address or page where the vulnerability can be observed;
• a brief description of the type of vulnerability;
• steps to reproduce. 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.

What to expect

You will receive acknowledgement of your vulnerability report, normally within 48 hours.

Your reported vulnerability will be triaged, and you may be contacted if further information is required.

Priority for bug fixes or mitigations is assessed by examining the impact severity and exploit complexity. Vulnerability reports may take some time to triage or address.

Guidance

You must not:

• break any applicable law or regulations
• access unnecessary, excessive, or significant amounts of data
• modify data in Historic Environment Scotland systems or services
• use high-intensity invasive or destructive scanning tools to find vulnerabilities
• disrupt any Historic Environment Scotland services or systems
• communicate any vulnerabilities or associated details via methods not described in this policy or with anyone other than us
• social engineer for example phishing, or physically attack Historic Environment Scotland infrastructure
• demand financial compensation in order to disclose any vulnerabilities

You must:

Comply with data protection legislation and must not violate the privacy of Historic Environment Scotland staff, users, members, contractors, services or systems. 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 one month of the vulnerability being resolved, whichever occurs first (or as otherwise required by data protection law).

Legalities

This policy is designed to be compatible with Historic Environment Scotland's Information Security Policy. It does not give you permission to act in any manner that is inconsistent with the law, or which might cause Historic Environment Scotland to be in breach of any of its legal obligations, including but not limited to:

• The Computer Misuse Act 1990
• The UK General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018

Historic Environment Scotland affirms that it will not seek prosecution of any security researcher who reports any security vulnerability on a Historic Environment Scotland’s service or system, where the researcher has acted in good faith and in accordance with this disclosure policy.