The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is committed to ensuring the security of the American public by protecting their information from unauthorized disclosure. This policy is intended to provide security researchers with clear guidelines for conducting vulnerability discovery activities and convey our preferences in how to submit discovered vulnerabilities to us.

This policy describes:

  • What systems and types of research are covered under this policy;
  • How to send us vulnerability reports; and
  • How long we ask security researchers to wait before publicly disclosing vulnerabilities.

We want security researchers to feel comfortable reporting vulnerabilities they’ve discovered – as set out in this policy – so that we can fix them and keep our users safe. We have developed this policy to reflect our values and uphold our sense of responsibility to security researchers who share their expertise with us in good faith.

Guidelines

We request that you:

  • Notify us as soon as possible after you discover a real or potential security issue.
  • Provide us a reasonable amount of time to resolve the issue before you disclose it publicly.
  • Make every effort to avoid privacy violations, degradation of user experience, disruption to production systems, and destruction or manipulation of data.
  • Only use exploits to the extent necessary to confirm a vulnerability’s presence. Do not use an exploit to compromise or exfiltrate data, establish command line access and/or persistence, or use the exploit to “pivot” to other systems.
  • Once you’ve found a vulnerability or encounter any sensitive data (including personally identifiable information, financial information, or proprietary information or trade secrets of any party), you must stop your test, notify us immediately, and not disclose this data to anyone else.
  • Do not submit a high volume of low-quality reports.
  • While it is encouraged to provide contact information, anonymous submissions are also accepted.

Authorization

Finders or researchers that comply with this policy and exercise an appropriate degree of care when performing vulnerability research will be considered authorized. We will work with you to understand and resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We will not recommend or pursue legal action related to your research.

Scope

This policy applies to the following systems and services:

Any service not expressly listed above, such as any connected services, are excluded from scope and are not authorized for testing. Additionally, vulnerabilities found in non-federal systems from our vendors fall outside of this policy’s scope—they should be reported directly to the vendor according to their disclosure policy (if any). If you aren’t sure whether a system or endpoint is in scope or not, before starting your research contact us at m-DOLCSIRC[at]dol[dot]gov or at the security contact for the system’s domain name listed in the .gov WHOIS.

Though we develop and maintain other internet-accessible systems or services, we ask that active research and testing be conducted only on the systems and services covered by the scope of this document. If there is a particular system not in scope that you think merits testing, please contact us at m-DOLCSIRC[at]dol[dot]gov to discuss it first. We will increase the scope of this policy over time.

The following test types are NOT authorized:

  • Network denial of service (DoS or DDoS) tests
  • Physical testing (e.g., office access, open doors, tailgating), social engineering (e.g., phishing, vishing), or any other non-technical vulnerability testing

Reporting vulnerabilities

Information submitted under this policy will be used for defensive purposes only – to mitigate or remediate vulnerabilities.

We accept vulnerability reports at https://bugcrowd.com/dol-vdp.

We will acknowledge receipt of your report within three business days.

Please keep your vulnerability reports current by sending us any new information as it becomes available. We may share your vulnerability reports with US-CERT, and any affected vendors or open source projects.

What we would like to see from you

To help us triage and prioritize submissions, we recommend that your reports:

  • Describe the vulnerability, where it was discovered, and the potential impact of exploitation.
  • Offer a detailed description of the steps needed to reproduce the vulnerability (proof of concept scripts or screenshots are helpful).

What you can expect from us

When you choose to share your contact information with us, we commit to coordinating with you as openly and as quickly as possible.

  • Within three business days, we will acknowledge receipt of your report.
  • To the best of our ability, we will confirm the existence of the vulnerability to you and be as transparent as possible about what steps we are taking during the remediation process, including issues or challenges that may delay resolution.
  • We will maintain an open dialogue to discuss issues.

Document change history

VersionDateDescription 
1.00February 19, 2021First issuance. 
1.01April 21, 2021Modified scope to *.dol.gov and increased scope to include *.bls.gov. 
1.02May 19, 2021Modified scope to add *.apprenticeship.gov, *.apprenticeships.gov, *.employer.gov, *.govloans.gov, *.hirevets.gov, *.trainingproviderresults.gov, *.unionreports.gov, and *.veterans.gov. 
1.03July 29, 2021Changed reporting location. 
1.04August 18, 2021Modified scope to add *benefits.gov, *.disability.gov, *.dol-esa.gov, *.doleta.gov, *.labor.gov, *worker.gov, *youthrules.gov. 
1.05November 9, 2021Modified scope to add *msha.gov. 
1.06November 16, 2021Modified scope to add *.jobcorps.gov, *.osha.gov, *.whistleblowers.gov. 
1.07November 30, 2021Modified scope to add *.wrp.gov. 
1.08April 15, 2022Modified scope to add *.jobcorps.org. 
1.09May 11, 2022Modified scope to add *.workforcegps.org, *.useuosh.org, *.euusosh.org. 
1.10June 10, 2022Modified scope to add *.ui.gov, *.unemployment.gov; modified version numbering system. 
1.11June 30, 2022Modified scope to add *.goodjobs.gov, *.jcmarketplace.com, *.joinjobcorps.com, *.backtojobcorps.com, *.jcsuccess.org, *.neapmap.com, *.jctalentworks.com, *.jcstudentsurveys.com. 
1.12August 4, 2022Modified scope to add *.acinet.org, *.alx.org, *.careerinfonet.org, *.careeronestop.org, *.mynextmove.org, *.myskillsmyfuture.org, *.onetcenter.org, *.onetonline.org, *.servicelocator.org, *.ajb.org, *.bonds4jobs.com, *.askearn.org, *.askjan.org, *.epolicyworks.com, *.leadcenter.org, *.whatcanyoudocampaign.org, *.ustedquepuedehacer.org, *.capeyouth.org, *.inclusiveapprenticeship.org, *.peatworks.org 
1.13August 18, 2022Modified scope to add *.miproximopaso.org, *.onetcodeconnector.org 
1.14November 23, 2022Modified scope to add *.persuader-reports.gov 
1.15July 17, 2023Modified scope to add https://*.migrantworker.gov, https://*.mshastanddown.gov, https://*.workcenter.gov, https://*.trabajadormigrante.gov 
1.16October 2, 2024Modified scope to remove https://*.govloans.gov, https://*benefits.gov 
1.17October 3, 2024Modified scope to remove https://*.backtojobcorps.com