This document explains the gnark team's process for handling issues reported and what to expect in return.

All security bugs in gnark-crypto distribution should be reported by email to [email protected].

Your email will be acknowledged within 7 days, and you'll be kept up to date with the progress until resolution. Your issue will be fixed or made public within 90 days.

If you have not received a reply to your email within 7 days, please follow up with the gnark team again at [email protected].

Note that we do not currently run any bug bounty program.

Depending on the nature of your issue, it will be categorized as an issue in the PUBLIC, PRIVATE, or URGENT track.

Issues in the PUBLIC track affect niche configurations, have very limited impact, or are already widely known.

PUBLIC track issues are fixed on the develop branch, and get backported to the next scheduled minor releases. The release announcement includes details of these issues, but there is no pre-announcement.

Issues in the PRIVATE track are violations of committed security properties.

PRIVATE track issues are fixed in the next scheduled minor releases , and are kept private until then.

Three to seven days before the release, a pre-announcement is sent to gnark-announce and @gnark_team, announcing the presence of a security fix in the upcoming releases, and which component in gnark is affected; compiler, constraint system or proof system (but not disclosing any more details).

URGENT track issues are a threat to the gnark ecosystem's integrity, or are being actively exploited in the wild leading to severe damage.

URGENT track issues are fixed in private, and trigger an immediate dedicated security release, possibly with no pre-announcement.

If you believe that an existing issue is security-related, we ask that you send an email to [email protected]. The email should include the issue ID and a short description of why it should be handled according to this security policy.

The gnark project uses the following disclosure process:

• Once the security report is received it is assigned a primary handler. This person coordinates the fix and release process.
• The issue is confirmed and a list of affected components is determined.
• Code is audited to find any potential similar problems.
• Fixes are prepared for the two most recent major releases and the head/master revision. Fixes are prepared for the two most recent major releases and merged to head/master.
• On the date that the fixes are applied, announcements are sent to gnark-announce and @gnark_team.

This process can take some time, especially when coordination is required with maintainers of other projects. Every effort will be made to handle the bug in as timely a manner as possible, however it's important that we follow the process described above to ensure that disclosures are handled consistently.

The best way to receive security announcements is to subscribe to the gnark-announce mailing list. Any messages pertaining to a security issue will be prefixed with [security].