Security is a fundamental engineering requirement of OpenPS3.

Because OpenPS3 operates close to hardware and system software, security must be designed into every layer of the platform rather than added later.

This document describes how security issues are reported, evaluated, fixed, and disclosed.

This policy applies to every official OpenPS3 project, including:

• Boot
• Kernel
• Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
• Drivers
• Runtime
• Shell
• SDK
• Toolchain
• Package Manager
• Registry
• Infrastructure
• Documentation repositories containing executable examples

OpenPS3 follows these principles:

• Security by design.
• Least privilege.
• Explicit trust boundaries.
• Reproducible builds.
• Public documentation.
• Responsible disclosure.
• Verifiable releases.

Security should never depend on obscurity.

Security fixes are provided only for maintained release branches.

Experimental branches may contain unfinished work and should not be considered production-ready.

Please do not report security vulnerabilities through public GitHub Issues.

Instead, use the project's private security reporting process.

When available, reports should be submitted through GitHub Security Advisories.

If an official security contact is established in the future, it will be published here.

A high-quality report should include:

• affected component
• affected version
• reproduction steps
• expected behavior
• observed behavior
• impact assessment
• proof of concept (if available)
• logs or diagnostics
• proposed mitigation (optional)

Incomplete reports may require additional investigation.

Every report follows the same lifecycle.

Report
    ↓
Acknowledgement
    ↓
Validation
    ↓
Risk Assessment
    ↓
Fix Development
    ↓
Review
    ↓
Release
    ↓
Public Advisory

Examples:

• arbitrary kernel execution
• boot chain compromise
• package signature bypass
• privilege escalation affecting the trusted computing base

Target response:

Immediate investigation.

Examples:

• unauthorized privilege escalation
• security boundary bypass
• persistent compromise
• driver vulnerabilities exposing privileged memory

Examples:

• denial of service
• information disclosure
• permission validation failures

Examples:

• minor validation issues
• diagnostic information leakage
• non-sensitive metadata exposure

We ask researchers to allow reasonable time for remediation before public disclosure.

Once a fix has been released, OpenPS3 will publish:

• technical analysis
• affected versions
• mitigation guidance
• acknowledgements

We believe coordinated disclosure benefits both users and researchers.

Every subsystem should strive to provide:

• deterministic behavior
• explicit error handling
• minimal attack surface
• well-defined trust boundaries
• documented interfaces

Complexity should never become a security feature.

Official releases should be:

• reproducible
• cryptographically signed
• versioned
• documented

Users should always be able to verify that downloaded artifacts are authentic.

Dependencies should be:

• actively maintained
• well documented
• minimally privileged
• regularly reviewed

Unnecessary dependencies should be avoided.

Third-party software must be evaluated before inclusion.

Evaluation criteria include:

• maintenance status
• licensing
• security history
• community adoption
• architectural compatibility

Packages distributed through the OpenPS3 ecosystem should provide:

• version metadata
• integrity verification
• dependency declarations
• cryptographic signatures
• reproducible package metadata

Package authenticity is a core platform requirement.

Developers are encouraged to:

• validate inputs
• avoid undefined behavior
• minimize unsafe code
• document assumptions
• write defensive code
• include tests for security-sensitive logic

Security reviews should accompany changes affecting privileged components.

The following components are considered security-critical:

• boot environment
• kernel
• memory manager
• process manager
• permission system
• package manager
• package registry
• cryptographic libraries

Changes affecting these components require additional review.

Security-sensitive pull requests may require:

• additional reviewers
• architecture review
• threat analysis
• regression testing
• compatibility verification

Approval requirements may be stricter than for ordinary changes.

OpenPS3 should rely on established, peer-reviewed cryptographic algorithms and libraries.

Custom cryptographic algorithms should not be introduced without exceptional justification.

Whenever practical, official releases should be reproducible.

Independent contributors should be able to verify that released binaries correspond to published source code.

Reproducibility improves trust in the software supply chain.

Public advisories should include:

• identifier
• affected versions
• severity
• technical description
• mitigation
• fixed version
• acknowledgements

Transparency is an important part of security.

Researchers who responsibly disclose vulnerabilities may be acknowledged in project documentation, unless they request anonymity.

Responsible disclosure strengthens the platform for everyone.

The following are generally outside the scope of this policy:

• vulnerabilities in unofficial forks
• unsupported releases
• local debugging builds
• modified third-party packages
• operating systems running outside the OpenPS3 project

Security is an ongoing engineering process.

No software is perfect.

What distinguishes a mature project is its ability to respond quickly, communicate transparently, and continuously improve.

OpenPS3 is committed to building a platform that is open, auditable, and secure by design.