Security Vendor Cuts Ties With CERT

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,849805,00.asp

By Dennis Fisher
January 28, 2003 

A prominent U.K.-based security vendor well-known for finding
dangerous vulnerabilities in a variety of software said on Monday that
it would no longer work with the CERT Coordination Center after CERT
personnel gave advance notice of several new vulnerabilities to a
software vendor and some government officials.

Researchers at Next Generation Security Software Ltd. were angered
when a representative from a software vendor told them that CERT had a
policy of providing advance information on vulnerabilities to some
organizations and government agencies, which pay for this privilege.  
Mark Litchfield, co-founder of NGS Software, said he was unaware of
the policy and was unhappy that CERT was collecting money for research
that his company had done. While he acknowledged that CERT is a
non-profit organization, Litchfield disputes its right to charge for
others' work.

"My problem is that we provide CERT with this information with the
sole view to using their own database of security alert subscribers to
help the administrator of a corporate network become aware of the
situation [and] the impact it has to them with the hope that there
would be an increase in the uptake of patching," Litchfield said. "I
do not wish to help them in any fashion 'profiting' from our hard
research. We don't even profit from it, why should they?"

CERT, based at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, is partially
funded by the federal government and serves as an independent
clearinghouse of vulnerability and threat information. Its database of
vulnerabilities is one of the most comprehensive anywhere.

Security researchers routinely provide CERT with advance notification
of flaws, typically at the same time they notify the affected vendors.  
Publication of vendor bulletins is often timed to coincide with the
release of a CERT advisory and the researcher's own bulletin.

The question of when and how to release vulnerability information is
the subject of much debate within the security community. Vendors and
some researchers favor controlled releases through organizations such
as CERT, which they argue helps reduce the chances of crackers getting
vulnerability information before a patch is available. Other
researchers choose to release information on their own, some without
ever contacting the affected vendors.

Litchfield's company has trod the middle ground, always contacting
vendors but sometimes releasing information before a patch is ready if
the vendor fails to react in a timely manner.

NGS Software is best known for hunting down buffer overruns, often in
popular products from Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. In fact, the
company last July discovered the vulnerability that the SQL Slammer
worm exploits.

Litchfield said he offered to work with CERT under a mutual
non-disclosure agreement, which CERT officials declined to do. He said
that in the future, NGS Software, based in Surrey, England, will only
work directly with the vendors affected by the vulnerabilities his
company finds.



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