Several updates to our security docs:
- Document what we consider a vulnerability
- Update my prefered PGP key identifier
- Clarify that we only provide security support for the most recent release (this has empirically been true for all of our releases
diff --git a/docs/security.rst b/docs/security.rst
index 13f9996..424fdb6 100644
--- a/docs/security.rst
+++ b/docs/security.rst
@@ -5,6 +5,39 @@
policies we have adopted to ensure that security issues are addressed in a
timely fashion.
+What is a security issue?
+-------------------------
+
+Anytime it's possible to write code using ``cryptography``'s public API which
+does not provide the guarntees that a reasonable developer would expect it to
+based on our documentation.
+
+That's a bit academic, but basically it means the scope of what we consider a
+vulnerability is broad, and we do not require a proof of concept or even a
+specific exploit, merely a reasonable threat model under which ``cryptography``
+could be attacked.
+
+To give a few examples of things we would consider security issues:
+
+* If a recipe, such as Fernet, made it easy for a user to bypass
+ confidentiality or integrity with the public API (e.g. if the API let a user
+ reuse nonces).
+* If, under any circumstances, we used a CSPRNG which wasn't fork-safe.
+* If ``cryptography`` used an API in an underlying C library and failed to
+ handle error conditions safely.
+
+Examples of things we wouldn't consider security issues:
+
+* Offering ECB mode for symmetric encryption. Though ECB is critically weak, it
+ is documented as being weak in our documentation.
+* Using a variable time comparison somewhere, if it's not possible to
+ articulate any particular program in which this would result in problematic
+ information disclosure.
+
+In general, if you're unsure, we request that you to default to treating things
+as security issues and handling them sensitively, the worst thing that can
+happen is that we'll ask you to file a bug issue.
+
Reporting a security issue
--------------------------
@@ -14,7 +47,7 @@
If you believe you've identified a security issue with ``cryptography``, please
report it to ``alex.gaynor@gmail.com``. Messages may be optionally encrypted
with PGP using key fingerprint
-``E27D 4AA0 1651 72CB C5D2 AF2B 125F 5C67 DFE9 4084`` (this public key is
+``F7FC 698F AAE2 D2EF BECD E98E D1B3 ADC0 E023 8CA6`` (this public key is
available from most commonly-used key servers).
Once you've submitted an issue via email, you should receive an acknowledgment
@@ -25,7 +58,7 @@
------------------
At any given time, we will provide security support for the `master`_ branch
-as well as the 2 most recent releases.
+as well as the most recent release.
New releases for OpenSSL updates
--------------------------------