A Story of Security and Simplicity
Meet George, a diligent website administrator at a growing e-commerce company. Every day, he handles a multitude of tasks, from ensuring server uptime to safeguarding customer data. One morning, George receives an email from a security researcher who discovered a potential vulnerability on the website. However, the researcher struggled to find the correct contact information, resulting in a delay in reporting the vulnerability. George realizes that a standardized way of communication with researchers is needed to quickly address security issues. This is where security.txt comes into play.
Why is security.txt important?
Security.txt is becoming a widely adopted standard among security-conscious organizations. This format helps create a unified location for disclosing how to report vulnerabilities, thereby simplifying the interaction between researchers and companies. Major companies support this initiative, and it aligns with global security best practices. Cloudflare offers a free security.txt generator, empowering all users to enhance their security measures without additional costs.
In 2020, Cloudflare released a Cloudflare Worker for generating security.txt as an open-source project on GitHub, reinforcing its commitment to improving Internet security. This tool is actively used by Cloudflare to streamline the vulnerability disclosure process. Over time, we’ve noticed growing demand for an easier way to implement this standard. In response, we integrated the security.txt generator directly into our dashboard, making it accessible to all our users. You can learn more about the initial release and its impact in our blog.
Who can use Cloudflare’s free security.txt generator?
This tool is designed for all Cloudflare users, from small business owners and large enterprises to developers and security professionals. Regardless of your experience level, the generator makes it easy to create and manage a security.txt file within your Cloudflare account, ensuring you’re ready to respond to vulnerability reports quickly.
Technical Insights: Using Cloudflare’s Tools
The security.txt generator is integrated into the Cloudflare dashboard. Here’s how it works:
- User-submitted data is stored in a highly available, geo-redundant PostgreSQL database, ensuring secure storage and quick accessibility from any location within our global network.
- Instead of creating a static file at the time of data entry, we use a dynamic approach. When a file is requested via the standard .well-known path, the system constructs the security.txt file based on the latest data from the database. This ensures that any updates are reflected in real-time without requiring manual updates.
- The data is synchronized across Cloudflare’s global network using our Quicksilver technology, providing instant availability of updates on all servers.
- Each security.txt file includes an expiration timestamp, which prompts users to regularly review and update their information.
- We also support optional fields such as encryption keys and signatures, allowing users to link to their PGP keys for secure communication.
- Users can manage their security.txt files via an API, enabling seamless integration with existing workflows.
Available Now and Free for All Cloudflare Users
