United Nations Responsible Disclosure & Reporter Acknowledgment Policy

United Nations Responsible Disclosure and Reporter Acknowledgment Policy

To improve the protection of its Information Communications Technology resources, the United Nations encourages the public to assist with its efforts by disclosing vulnerabilities in the United Nations’ publicly accessible information system. The manner by which such assistance may be made available to the United Nations is set forth below.

What to report to the United Nations

Security incidents and details of vulnerabilities associated with publically accessible United Nations (UN) Information Communications Technology resources, including websites.

Vulnerability reporting policy:

The UN will accept disclosures of vulnerabilities under the following conditions:

  1. The vulnerability has not already been publically disclosed.
  2. The vulnerability should be reported to the UN as quickly as possible after its discovery.
  3. The vulnerability findings must remain confidential for at least 90 days following the date the vulnerability was reported to the UN or until public disclosure of the vulnerability has been made on this website.
  4. The severity of a vulnerability finding is assessed by the UN at its own discretion.
  5. The name and contact information of the reporter may be disclosed to affected technology vendor(s) unless otherwise requested by the reporter.

The UN reserves the right to accept or reject any security vulnerability disclosure report at its discretion.

Individuals or entities who wish to report security vulnerability should follow the procedures set forth below:

  • The findings, including contact details, should be sent to infosec@un.org.
  • The findings should be communicated using PGP encrypted messages using the public key (PGP Fingerprint: A001 EB04 2D38 7016 EEA8 CC54 798E 86D7 6B9A A810) available on this website.
  • As much information as possible regarding the finding should be communicated to the UN to enable the Organization to reproduce and verify the vulnerability, in order to implement appropriate remediation actions.
  • The vulnerability findings must remain confidential for at least 90 days following the date the vulnerability was reported to the UN or until public disclosure of the vulnerability has been made on this website.

If more information is required regarding a reported vulnerability, the UN may contact the reporter; therefore it is important to provide valid contact details, including email address and/or telephone number.

If the conditions listed above are satisfied, the UN will verify the existence of the vulnerability, notify affected parties, and implement actions to mitigate the vulnerability.

Once the vulnerability has been removed, the reporter will be acknowledged unless he/she wishes to remain anonymous, and listed (at his or her own discretion) on this page with a short description of the vulnerability reported.

By reporting vulnerability findings to the UN, the reporter acknowledges that such reporting is provided pro bono and without expectation of financial or other compensation. The reporter also affirms that neither he/she nor any entity that he/she represents is complicit in human rights abuses, tolerates forced or compulsory labour or use child labour, is involved in the sale or manufacture of anti-personnel mines or their components, or does not meet the purposes and principles of the United Nations.