Re: Call for Community Feedback: Guidance on Reporting Protocol Vulnerabilities

Michael Thomas <mike@mtcc.com> Wed, 28 October 2020 16:45 UTC

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Subject: Re: Call for Community Feedback: Guidance on Reporting Protocol Vulnerabilities
To: Eliot Lear <lear@cisco.com>
Cc: The IETF List <ietf@ietf.org>
References: <5081794697df44d8bd76b675cf08dc23@cert.org> <09B0A1A1-6534-4A44-A162-9962FFF8D8B8@cisco.com> <362d68dd6117452f925322f8180de423@cert.org> <B864FFAE-3E3E-4CEF-B832-4552C8BAE70B@cisco.com> <28e48db9700d49dd97dc0023761a8906@cert.org> <0E4F9F37-6907-496F-BBCA-112FE6CA75FB@cisco.com> <608e7b38-57a6-df5f-d0ea-9ddb666a6e3f@mtcc.com> <4FA7CEDE-0C67-43C5-922C-9B7C277E2487@cisco.com>
From: Michael Thomas <mike@mtcc.com>
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Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2020 09:45:00 -0700
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On 10/28/20 9:20 AM, Eliot Lear wrote:

>> That hopefully is not universal, but not considering the tendency 
>> toward the "i know this, who are you?" reaction is to my mind one of 
>> the key problems here. The other problem is that somebody off the 
>> street is not going to know arcane IETF process mechanisms which can 
>> be wielded as another cudgel to make that reporter go away. That just 
>> got used on me yesterday and is perfectly timely: why didn't i follow 
>> process XYZ? because i don't know anything about process XYZ, and by 
>> the time I understand process XYZ i've already lost interest because 
>> i didn't sign up for a protracted bureaucratic fight. that and i have 
>> no stake in the outcome beyond just being interested or a user; if 
>> you make me have to fight for it, you've lost me.
>>
>
> Yes.  And what I am getting at is a little bit of hand holding on our 
> side for, as I said, people who don’t want to play “Inside Baseball” 
> could be very useful to this community.
>
What I suggested elsewhere is that maybe some sort of independent 
verification that there is a good likelihood that there is a flaw by 
somebody who knows inside ball may be helpful for things that could be 
high impact if true. The other part is that nobody but actual crackpots 
wants to be labeled one. Finding a flaw in an existing protocol that's 
been through extensive review is fraught with "am i reading this 
right?". To be jumped on as being a crackpot by authors from the outset 
is not very fun and definitely not an experience somebody who has no dog 
in the fight looks forward to. Obviously this left a really bad taste in 
my mouth but i doubt i'm the only one. Had somebody with known clue 
from, say, the security area vouched that it is problem, the author 
would have been a lot less likely to go ballistic (given that author, 
that was no guarantee though).

Mike