Vulnerability Disclosure Policy

This Vulnerability Disclosure Policy explains how to report a suspected security vulnerability affecting Anchor Hanover Group systems, services or websites. It sets out the standards we ask security researchers and members of the public to follow when conducting security testing and reporting vulnerabilities.

We welcome responsible disclosure and appreciate the efforts of those who help us identify security weaknesses. Prompt reporting helps us protect the information, services, residents, customers, colleagues and partners who rely on our systems.

This policy applies to systems and services for which a published security.txt file references this policy. Anchor Hanover Group does not operate a bug bounty programme and does not offer financial rewards for vulnerability reports. All reports submitted in accordance with this policy will be reviewed and considered.

Reporting

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability relating to the Anchor Hanover Group system, please submit a vulnerability report [email protected].

In your report please include details of: 

• The website, IP or page where the vulnerability can be observed.
• A brief description of the type of vulnerability, for example; “XSS vulnerability”.
• Steps to reproduce. These should be a benign, non-destructive, proof of concept. This helps to ensure that the report can be triaged quickly and accurately. It also reduces the likelihood of duplicate reports, or malicious exploitation of some vulnerabilities, such as sub-domain takeovers.

What to expect

After you have submitted your report, we will respond to your report within 5 working days and aim to triage your report within 10 working days. We’ll also aim to keep you informed of our progress.

Priority for remediation is assessed by looking at the impact, severity and exploit complexity. Vulnerability reports might take some time to triage or address. You are welcome to enquire on the status but should avoid doing so more than once every 14 days. This allows our teams to focus on the remediation.

We will notify you when the reported vulnerability is remediated, and you may be invited to confirm that the solution covers the vulnerability adequately.

Once your vulnerability has been resolved, we welcome requests to disclose your report. We’d like to unify our guidance, so please do continue to coordinate public release with us.

Guidance

You must NOT: 

• Break any applicable law or regulations.
• Access unnecessary, excessive or significant amounts of data.
• Modify data in the Anchor Hanover Group systems or services.
• Use high-intensity invasive or destructive scanning tools to find vulnerabilities.
• Attempt or report any form of denial of service, e.g. overwhelming a service with a high volume of requests.
• Disrupt the Anchor Hanover Group services or systems.
• Submit reports detailing non-exploitable vulnerabilities, or reports indicating that the services do not fully align with “best practice”, for example missing security headers.
• Submit reports detailing TLS configuration weaknesses, for example “weak” cipher suite support or the presence of TLS1.0 support.
• Communicate any vulnerabilities or associated details other than by means described in the published security.txt.
• Social engineer, ‘phish’ or physically attack the Anchor Hanover Group staff or infrastructure.
• Demand financial compensation in order to disclose any vulnerabilities.

You must: 

• Always comply with data protection rules and must not violate the privacy of any data Anchor Hanover Group holds. You must not, for example, share, redistribute or fail to properly secure data retrieved from the systems or services.
• Securely delete all data retrieved during your research as soon as it is no longer required or within 1 month of the vulnerability being resolved, whichever occurs first (or as otherwise required by data protection law).

Legalities

This policy is designed to be compatible with common vulnerability disclosure good practice. It does not give you permission to act in any manner that is inconsistent with the law, or which might cause the Anchor Hanover Group or partner organisations to be in breach of any legal obligations.