Gentoo Linux Vulnerability Treatment Policy

1.  Scope

Supported architectures

Gentoo Linux is offered on many different architectures. Some of these architectures have more developers than others and, as such, are able to respond to new security vulnerabilities more quickly. While the ultimate goal of the Gentoo Security project is to ensure that all architectures receive security fixes at the same time, we must also balance that against releasing security fixes and GLSAs as quickly as possible so that the majority of our users are informed and protected.

For this reason, the security team separates Gentoo architectures into two groups, supported and unsupported:

• Supported: these architectures must have a stable fix committed before the GLSA can be released
• Unsupported: these architectures will be notified of new vulnerabilities (cc on relevant bugs), however, we will not wait for a stable fix on these arches before issuing the GLSA and closing the bug

Here is the list of currently supported architectures:

All architectures are welcomed and encouraged to become a supported arch. There are two straightforward criteria that need to be met in order to be officially supported by the Gentoo Security project:

• Appoint a developer who is the primary point of contact for security issues related to your arch: we will look to this person to be responsible for ensuring that security bugs are adequately remediated on their particular architecture
• Agree to adhere to the published timelines for testing and marking packages as stable

Release Engineering

The Release Engineering ("releng") project appoints a developer to be the primary point of contact for security issues.

Release Engineering informs the Gentoo Security Project when a first tree snapshot is taken for media releases. Beginning with the first snapshot until the official media release ("release preparation period"), Release Engineering (the appointed security liaison in case of confidential issues) should be cc'd on each security bug entering the stabilization phase.

Kernels

Currently kernels are not covered by the GLSA release process. Vulnerabilities must still be reported and will be fixed, but no GLSA will be issued when everything is solved.

Non-stable packages

Sometimes a vulnerability is found in a package that is not part of the stable trees. This is the case when the vulnerability is a security regression in a newer (~ARCH) ebuild, but the older (stable) packages are not affected, or when the package has never had any stable ebuilds in the tree. In this case the vulnerability must still be reported and will be fixed, but no GLSA will be issued when everything is solved.

2.  Vulnerability feed

Published vulnerabilities

Each vulnerability should initially be entered as a Bugzilla entry with product "Gentoo Security" and component "Vulnerabilities" (assigned to security@gentoo.org). Major security lists should have official scouts assigned to them which should ensure that all vulnerabilities announced on these lists get a security bugzilla entry.

Confidential vulnerabilities

Confidential vulnerabilities (for example coming from developer's direct communication or restricted vendor-sec lists) should follow a specific procedure. They should not appear as a public bugzilla entry, but only in security-restricted media like a private bugzilla section or the GLSAMaker tool. They should get corrected using private communication channels between the GLSA coordinator and the package maintainer.

3.  Dispatch

Severity level

In order to seed the appropriate reaction times and escalation procedures, we need to assign a severity level to each vulnerability. This severity level must be based on how widespread the affected software is amongst Gentoo users and depth of the vulnerability.

You can use the following two tables to help you assign the severity level:

Here is the table of the resulting severity levels. They should be set to the bugzilla severity level of the same name:

Security Bug Wrangler role

Someone should assume the responsibility of security bug wrangler and do the following tasks as soon as a new vulnerability enters Bugzilla:

• checking for duplicates: if the bug describes a vulnerability already reported it should be resolved as DUPLICATE
• checking for wrong component: if the bug is not about a vulnerability its component should be changed appropriately
• checking if the bug is really a vulnerability and that it affects a Gentoo Linux package, otherwise resolve the bug as INVALID

During this phase it may be necessary to ask the reporter for details. The bug remains with status NEW as long as necessary. When (if) the bug passes these sanity tests, it should be accepted and the bug wrangler should do the following:

• rename the bug so that it includes category/package-name at start (for example: "net-mail/clamav: DoS using RAR files")
• evaluate and assign a severity level (see above)
• set the status to ASSIGNED
• seed the status whiteboard to the correct severity code and status
• optionally assign a GLSA coordinator for the bug, by adding the coordinator name to the status whiteboard

Timeframe and backup procedures

This dispatch has to be done quickly after bug creation in order to seed short delays for major vulnerabilities and to show appreciation to the bug reporter. The target delay is 12 hours. The security bug wrangler has to maintain a list of possible GLSA coordinators with availabilities and preferred areas of expertise. In order to ensure permanent dispatch, the security bug wrangler job should have appropriate back-ups.

4.  Bug correction and GLSA draft

GLSA Coordinator role

The GLSA coordinator has responsibility for the following tasks:

• determine what must be done in order to close the vulnerability (for example identify the upstream version containing the fix)
• if no fix is available from upstream yet, ensure that the bug is correctly reported to the upstream developer and set status whiteboard to upstream
• if a fix is available, get the package maintainer involved to produce and commit an ebuild containing the fix (package maintainer/herd should be cc'd on the bug) and set status whiteboard to ebuild
• once an ebuild is committed, evaluate what keywords are needed for the fix ebuild and get arch-specific teams to test and mark the ebuild stable on their architectures (arch-teams should be cc'd on the bug, as well as releng during release preparation) and set status whiteboard to stable
• arch-maintainers should mark the ebuild stable if there is no regression in the fix ebuild compared to the latest vulnerable version
• in parallel, writing a draft GLSA using the GLSAMaker tool
• when the corrective ebuild is ready for all supported archs, set the status whiteboard to glsa

Timeframe and escalation procedures

In order to meet the target delay for vulnerability resolution, a number of escalation procedures have been defined. These include:

• when a bug in a waiting state needs urgent care, you should change the status whiteboard entries to their "+" counterpart: upstream+, ebuild+, stable+ and glsa+
• if no upstream fix is available (upstream+ status), a decision must be taken on masking the package: the security team can mask a package which is not depended on by itself, but need a TLP manager approval before masking a package which is not standalone
• if the maintainer/herd does not show up for producing the ebuild during 48 hours after summoning (ebuild+ status), the security team should try to bump the ebuild by itself
• if testing and marking stable takes too much time (stable+ status), the security team will shout on IRC channels and gentoo-dev list to get more testers. It will either mark the ebuild stable by itself or, in the event this cannot be done due to stability issues, mask it (see security masking approval policy above)
• if the GLSA coordinator does not show up to draft a GLSA (glsa+ status), then another member of the security team should draft the GLSA and submit it to peer review

Good practices for security bugs

Security bugs differ from other bugs, in that an easy and simple upgrade path must be presented to users through the GLSA. Therefore package maintainers and GLSA coordinators should follow these good practices:

• The ebuild including the security fix should have its own version number, so that it gets picked up in the normal system upgrade process: use rev-bumps if needed
• The ebuild including the security fix should have a higher version number than any previously published version, so that an easy upgrade path can be proposed to the user
• In case of a patch, it should only be applied to the more recent version, there is no need to rev-bump all ebuilds with a patched version
• Vulnerable versions should be left in the tree until the bug enters the stable status, in order to correctly evaluate what keywords are needed for the fix version

Temporary GLSAs

If a blocker or critical or major vulnerability cannot totally be corrected in the target delay (for example a kernel vulnerability that has to be corrected on all sources), an early warning GLSA should be written with workaround information (for example: install these vanilla-sources, or here is the kernel patch to apply to your sources). This GLSA will be replaced by the final GLSA when the definitive correction is available.

If a common (type A or B) package is masked for security reasons, a temporary GLSA should be issued to explain why the package is currently unavailable and/or why people should uninstall the current version. This GLSA will be replaced by the final GLSA when the fix becomes available and the package is unmasked.

5.  GLSA publication process

Peer review

Once ready, a GLSA should be submitted to peer review. At least two members of the security team must approve the draft GLSA. Once the draft passes the peer review process, it should be assigned an official GLSA number.

GLSA release

Once the GLSA passes the peer review process (and after making sure the ebuild has made its way into the stable tree), the GLSA coordinator should commit the GLSA XML in the Gentoo CVS repository. Once this is done, the GLSA will automatically appear on the official GLSA index page and RDF feed.

GLSA publication

The GLSA text version must be published by the GLSA coordinator to the following media:

There should be one single email sent, with the following rules:

• The To: field must be set to gentoo-announce
• The Cc: filed must contain the other email addresses
• The From: and Return-Path: must be set to the GLSA coordinator @gentoo.org address
• The Subject: field must be "[ GLSA XXXXYY-ZZ ] Your vulnerability here"
• The body should only contain the text version of the GLSA
• The email must be signed by the GLSA coordinator GPG key

When the GLSA has been published the corresponding bugzilla bug should be resolved as FIXED, with the GLSA number referenced in the comments section of the bug.

GLSA errata

Sometimes an error will slip through the peer-review process and an incorrect GLSA will be published to the world. Depending on the severity of the error(s), the following policy for erratum should be applied:

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