Only the latest release receives security fixes. Older versions are not patched.

Do not report security vulnerabilities via public GitHub issues.

Open a private advisory at: https://github.com/Accenture/SWAO/security/advisories/new

This creates a private channel visible only to repository maintainers. We prefer this channel because it keeps the report confidential until a fix is ready and allows coordinated disclosure.

If you cannot use GitHub Security Advisories, send a report to: swao-tool@accenture.com

Use the subject line: [SECURITY] SWAO vulnerability report

Encrypt your report using the GPG key published in this repository if the report contains sensitive proof-of-concept material.

• Description of the vulnerability and the affected component
• Steps to reproduce or a proof-of-concept (minimal reproduction preferred)
• Potential impact: what can an attacker achieve?
• Your suggested severity (Critical / High / Medium / Low)
• Your preferred attribution (name and/or GitHub handle, or anonymous)

We will keep you informed throughout the process and credit you in the release notes unless you prefer to remain anonymous.

We follow responsible disclosure practices:

1. Reporter submits a private report.
2. Maintainers confirm receipt and assess severity within the SLA above.
3. A fix is developed in a private fork or branch.
4. The fix is released; a GitHub Security Advisory is published simultaneously.
5. Reporter is credited (if desired) in the advisory and release notes.
6. A 90-day embargo applies from the date of our initial acknowledgement. If we cannot deliver a fix within 90 days we will communicate this and agree a revised timeline with the reporter.

Vulnerabilities that affect SWAO Community Edition users or SWAO operators:

• Remote code execution via crafted workspace input files (.swao.yml, WSP schema, framework YAML, IaC HCL)
• Authentication or authorisation bypass in the licence guard (LicenseGuard)
• Secret exposure via SWAO's logging or output (e.g. LLM API keys leaked to stdout)
• Dependency vulnerabilities with a demonstrated exploit path in SWAO's attack surface
• Privilege escalation via the MCP server's tool interface
• Credential exfiltration via the Playwright crawl path

• Theoretical vulnerabilities without a working proof-of-concept
• Issues affecting only unsupported versions
• Social engineering attacks targeting contributors or maintainers
• Vulnerabilities in third-party dependencies with no exploitable impact on SWAO
• Issues that require physical access to the operator's machine
• Denial-of-service via crafted LLM responses (the LLM is an external untrusted input by design; timeout and budget limits are the primary mitigations)

SWAO is designed for sovereign and regulated environments. Key security properties:

• Air-gapped licence verification. No outbound network call is made during licence verification. The Ed25519 signature is checked locally against a public key baked into the binary.
• Secret redaction. All LLM API calls pass through a pre-call redactor that strips secret-shaped values before they leave the machine. Redacted content is never logged.
• No telemetry. SWAO does not phone home, collect usage data, or transmit workspace content to any Accenture server.
• Binary integrity. Release binaries are distributed with SHA256 checksums in dist-bin/SHA256SUMS and signed GitHub Releases.

Security fixes are announced via:

• GitHub Releases -- release notes indicate when a release addresses a security issue
• GitHub Discussions / Announcements -- significant vulnerabilities announced in the Announcements category
• GitHub Security Advisories -- published at fix time with CVE if applicable