Security Policy
Last updated: June 2, 2023
A vulnerability is a technical issue with the openaq.org website and its subdomains which attackers or hackers could use to exploit the website and its users.
Vulnerabilities are covered by this policy if the security.txt file for the domain points to this page.
You will not be paid a reward for reporting a vulnerability (known as a ‘bug bounty’).
How to report a vulnerability
Please include in your report:
- the IP address and/or URL of the page where you found the vulnerability
- a description of the type of vulnerability - for example, XSS vulnerability
- details of the steps we need to take to reproduce the vulnerability
- screenshots or logs if you have them
Guidelines for reporting a vulnerability
When you are investigating and reporting the vulnerability on a openaq.org domain or subdomain, you must not:
- break the law
- access unnecessary or excessive amounts of data
- modify data
- use high-intensity invasive or destructive scanning tools to find vulnerabilities
- try a denial of service (DOS) - for example overwhelming a service on openaq.org with a high volume of requests
- tell other people about the vulnerability you have found until we have disclosed it
- social engineer, phish or physically attack our staff or infrastructure
- demand money to disclose a vulnerability
Data protection
You must follow data protection rules when reporting a vulnerability. This means you cannot share any data you might retrieve from openaq.org when researching the vulnerability.
You must keep the data secure until you delete it. You must delete the data as soon as we no longer need it or no later than 1 month after the vulnerability has been resolved - whichever comes first.
After you’ve reported the vulnerability
You’ll get confirmation that we have received your report within 5 working days. We’ll try to assess your report within 10 working days. We prioritise fixes by impact, severity and exploit complexity.
