Vulnerability Disclosure Form

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is committed to ensuring the security of the American public by protecting their information. This policy is intended to give security researchers clear guidelines for conducting vulnerability discovery activities and to convey our preferences in how to submit discovered vulnerabilities.

This policy describes what systems and types of research are covered under this policy, how to send us vulnerability reports, and how long we ask security researchers to wait before publicly disclosing vulnerabilities.

Scope

This policy applies to all DFC-managed systems and services that are accessible from the Internet. This includes the registered domain name (dfc.gov). If you aren’t sure whether a system is in scope or not, contact us at CISO@dfc.gov before starting your research.

Any service not expressly listed above, such as any connected services, are excluded from scope and are not authorized for testing. Additionally, vulnerabilities found in non-federal systems from our vendors fall outside of this policy’s scope and should be reported directly to the vendor according to their disclosure policy (if any). If there is a particular system not in scope that you think merits testing, please contact CISO@dfc.gov before starting your research.

Unauthorized Research Methods

The following test methods are not authorized:

• Network denial of service (DoS or DDoS) tests or other tests that impair access to or damage a system or data
• Physical testing (e.g. office access, open doors, tailgating), social engineering (e.g. phishing, vishing), or any other non-technical vulnerability testing

Guidelines

Under this policy, “research” means activities in which you:

• Notify bugcrowd.com/dfc-vdp as soon as possible after you discover a real or potential security issue.
• Make every effort to avoid privacy violations, degradation of user experience, disruption to production systems, and destruction or manipulation of data.
• Only use exploits to the extent necessary to confirm a vulnerability’s presence. Do not use an exploit to compromise or exfiltrate data, establish persistent command line access, or use the exploit to pivot to other systems.
• Do not submit a high volume of low-quality reports.

Once you’ve established that a vulnerability exists or encounter any sensitive data (including personally identifiable information (PII), financial information, or proprietary information or trade secrets of any party), you must stop your test, notify us immediately, and not disclose this data to anyone else.

Safe Harbor

When conducting vulnerability research according to this policy, we consider this research to be:

• Authorized in accordance with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) (and/or similar state laws), and we will not initiate or support legal action against you for accidental, good faith violations of this policy;
• Exempt from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and we will not bring a claim against you for circumvention of technology controls;
• Exempt from restrictions in our Terms & Conditions that would interfere with conducting security research, and we waive those restrictions on a limited basis for work done under this policy; and
• Lawful, helpful to the overall security of the Internet, and conducted in good faith.

You are expected, as always, to comply with all applicable laws.

If at any time you have concerns or are uncertain whether your security research is consistent with this policy, please inquire via CISO@dfc.gov before going any further.

How to Report

Reports may be submitted anonymously online using this form.

• By submitting a vulnerability, security researchers acknowledge that they have no expectation of payment and expressly waive any future pay claims against the U.S. Government related to the submission.
• DFC encourages security researchers to let DFC know right away when they find a security vulnerability that could impact DFC.
• We do not support PGP-encrypted emails. For particularly sensitive information, submit via this form.

Submit Here

Completing the Form

To help us triage and prioritize submissions, we recommend that your reports:

• Describe the location the vulnerability was discovered and the potential impact of exploitation.
• Offer a detailed description of the steps needed to reproduce the vulnerability. Proof of concept scripts or screenshots are helpful.
• Are submitted in English, if possible.

What to Expect Next

• Information submitted under this policy will be used for defensive purposes only—to mitigate or remediate vulnerabilities.
• DFC will investigate all legitimate reports and resolve to fix any issues as soon as possible.
• If you share contact information, we will acknowledge receipt of your report within 3 business days.
• To the best of our ability, we will confirm the existence of the vulnerability to you and be as transparent as possible about what steps we are taking during the remediation process, including on issues or challenges that may delay resolution.

If your findings include newly discovered vulnerabilities that affect all users of a product or service and not solely DFC, we may share your report with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, where it will be handled under their coordinated vulnerability disclosure process. We will not share your name or contact information without express permission.

Questions

Questions regarding this policy may be sent to CISO@dfc.gov. We also invite you to contact us with suggestions for improving this policy.

Legal

Security researchers must comply with all applicable Federal, State, and Local laws in connection with security research activities or other participation in this vulnerability disclosure program. DFC does not authorize, permit, or otherwise allow (expressly or impliedly) any person, including any individual, group of individuals, consortium, partnership, or any other business or legal entity to engage in any security research or vulnerability or threat disclosure activity that is inconsistent with this policy or the law. If security researchers engage in any activities that are inconsistent with this policy or the law, security researchers may be subject to criminal and/or civil liabilities.

To the extent that any security research or vulnerability disclosure activity involves the networks, systems, information, applications, products, or services of a non-DFC entity (e.g., other Federal departments or agencies; State, Local, or Tribal governments; private sector companies or persons; employees or personnel of any such entities; or any other such third party), that non-DFC third party may independently determine whether to pursue legal action or remedies related to such activities.

If security researchers conduct research and vulnerability disclosure activities in accordance with the restrictions and guidelines set forth in this policy:

1. DFC will not initiate or recommend any law enforcement or civil lawsuits related to such activities; and
2. In the event of any law enforcement or civil action brought by anyone other than DFC, DFC will communicate as appropriate, in the absence of any legal restriction on DFC’s ability to so communicate, that your activities were conducted pursuant to and in compliance with this policy.

Paperwork Reduction Act Burden

An agency may not conduct or sponsor an information collection, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information, unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated at three hours. The OMB Control No. for this collection is 1601-0028. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to DHS.PRA@hq.dhs.gov.

Privacy Statement

Authority: U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is authorized to collect this Personally Identifiable Information (PII) by and through the following authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 44 U.S.C. 3101.

Purpose: The PII requested is being collected solely to conduct feedback and dialogue functions with submitters, as necessary.

Sharing Your Information: The information that you provide will be used by and disclosed to Federal Government personnel and contractors for the above-mentioned purpose. This includes using the information as necessary and authorized by the routine uses published in DFC's Mailing and Other Lists System. Do not provide personal information beyond what is explicitly asked for in any of the provided data fields.

Disclosure: The disclosure of your PII is voluntary. However, a failure to provide your email information will inhibit our ability to provide feedback regarding the reported matter.

• Within 3 business days, we will acknowledge that your report has been received.
• To the best of our ability, we will confirm the existence of the vulnerability to you and be as transparent as possible about what steps we are taking during the remediation process, including on issues or challenges that may delay resolution.
• We will maintain an open dialogue to discuss issues.