Re: Consulting Question

["Adam Pal-Moldovan" <pal_adam () gmx net>]

Hi Chris

First of all, congrats for the gap you`ve found.
Considering a story from one of Mitnick`s books, the worst case scenario would be an accusation that you want to 
exploit the company.
I think your "dilema" is pretty classical for the "good hackers" but think at the companies, there is not only the 
IT-department where the guys try to fix their software, there is also the management and pr-department, so they 
wouldn`t eventualy understand what you do and falsely accuse you, because that is good for the immage of the company. 
On the other hand, maybe they will understand you, make you an offert to shut up, and not to tell anyone about it.

Usualy companies trust 3rd party consultants more than someone from outside, because such consultants are damn 
expensive, so they must be damn good (management mentality).

Considering some draft about how to publish a vulnerability, if you sum up my previous statements and can anonymize 
that so far to get out of any risk, i think you can check 
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/html/fieldhelp
Thats what i`ve found about how some draft should/could look like.


Best regards


Adam

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Datum: Tue, 8 May 2007 17:31:43 -0400 (EDT)
Von: sammons () cs utk edu
An: security-basics () securityfocus com
Betreff: Consulting Question

> Hello All,
>
>   I would like to get my feet wet doing some general security consultation
> work (network audits, penetration testing, etc.). My questions concerns
> a proper approach to potential clients. Consider this situation, I have
> found a few vulnerabilities in the company's web application product
> that could lead to potential identity theft and system compromise. This
> being a relatively large company, how would one go about informing the
> company about this vulnerability without them leaving you 100% out of
> the equation?
>
>   In the case that the company is not interested in further third-party
> assistance I have a second question (concerning credit for finding such
> vulnerability). What is the proper/ethical protocol for publishing a
> software vulnerability? Are there any other methods that would insure
> credit while protecting the company from mass exploitation? I thank you
> in advanced for your input.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Chris

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