Software testing firm says no to responsible disclosure

One of the most debated issues in the world of computer security will soon experience a moment of clarity that will prove one of the sides right. But which?

Evgeny Legerov, founder of Intevydis, a Moscow-based company that designs tools for testing software and provides pentesting and code review services, has announced that the company has changed its position regarding responsible disclosure policy and that they plan to make public a large batch of vulnerabilities (and exploits for some of them) during this month.

According to Brian Krebs, among the disclosed vulnerabilities there will be those that affect Web servers such as Zeus and Sun; Mysql, IBM DB2, Lotus Domino and Informix databases; and Novell eDirectory, Sun Directory and Tivoli Directory servers.

“After working with the vendors long enough, we’ve come to conclusion that, to put it simply, it is a waste of time. Now, we do not contact with vendors and do not support so-called “responsible disclosure’ policy,” Legerov said.

The news got mixed reactions. There are those like Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee, that think the move irresponsible. Others, like Charlie Miller, security researcher with Independent Security Evaluators, understand what drove them to this decision, and thinks that this would not be an issue it vendors took the security of their products seriously.

It just remains to be seen what repercussions will Intevydis’ move have, and we’ll not have to wait much longer.