Vulnerability disclosure is the practice of publishing information about a computer security problem, and a type of policy that stipulates guidelines for doing so. Either the person or organization that discovers the vulnerability or a responsible industry body such as the Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) may make the disclosure, sometimes after alerting the vendor and allowing them a certain amount of time to fix the problem before publishing the information.
The question of how much information to provide and when to make it public is a contentious issue. Some people argue for full and immediate disclosure, including the specific information that could be used in an exploit taking advantage of the vulnerability; others believe that limited information should be made available to a selected group after some specified amount of time has elapsed since the vulnerability was found; and still others believe that no vulnerability information should be published at all.
A number of organizations are establishing vulnerability disclosure policies. According to CERT's policy, for example, they will: inform the vendor about a vulnerability as soon as practically possible after they receive a report; advise the reporter of changes in the status of the vulnerability; and, under most circumstances, disclose the information to the public 45 days after the problem is reported, whether the vendor has dealt with the issue or not.