Add issue templates that route disclosure away from public threads - #5
Merged
Merged
Conversation
The repository is public with issues enabled and had no templates, so the default path for a reporter was a blank public issue — including for the one class of report that must never be filed publicly. SECURITY.md and CONTRIBUTING.md already say that anything touching provenance or personal data goes through a private advisory. That instruction only works if the reader finds it before filing, and nothing enforced it at the moment of filing. These templates move the rule to the point of decision. ──────────────────────── config.yml ──────────────────────── `blank_issues_enabled: false`, so every report starts from a form rather than an empty box. Two contact links sit above the form: - A private-disclosure route to GitHub security advisories, worded for what actually matters here — a forged or missing citation, a wrong retrieval timestamp, or anything involving personal data. This is the redirect that does the real work: it appears before the reporter can paste a finding into a public thread. - An upstream-data route, because "the government source published something wrong" is a coverage caveat rather than a citature bug, and a reporter has no way to know that in advance. ───────────────────────── bug.yml ───────────────────────── Opens with the stop-and-report-privately notice, repeated at the top of the form on the assumption that a reporter skipped the contact links. Fields are shaped around how this product actually fails: which tool or actor, the exact input, expected versus actual, and — optional but the most useful field on the form — the receipt envelope. The citation, `retrieved_at`, and match provenance name the upstream file an answer came from, which is usually the shortest path to a cause. A source dropdown tags FEC / USASpending / SAM.gov / Grants.gov, since those have genuinely different upstream cadences and a report that looks like staleness is often correct behaviour on a two-year publication cycle. The input field says to redact nothing: these are public records by law, and a redacted repro is harder to act on for no privacy gain. ────────────────────────── Reach ────────────────────────── Same limit as the other health files: GitHub applies defaults from a .github repository to PUBLIC repositories. The only other repository in the org is private, so the immediate reach is this one. Co-authored-by: stxkxsbot <275011021+stxkxsbot@users.noreply.github.com>
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Closes the last open item from the 2026-08-18 sweep that was mine to close. The repo is public with issues enabled and had no templates — so the default path for a reporter was a blank public issue, including for the one class of report that must never be filed publicly.
The actual problem
SECURITY.mdandCONTRIBUTING.mdalready say that anything touching provenance or personal data goes through a private advisory. That only works if the reader finds it before filing. Nothing enforced it at the moment of filing.These templates move the rule to the point of decision — the redirect now appears before someone can paste a finding into a public thread.
What's here
config.yml—blank_issues_enabled: false, plus two contact links above the form:retrieved_at, or personal data. Worded for this product's real threat surface, not generic "found a vuln".bug.yml— opens with the stop-and-report-privately notice repeated, on the assumption the reporter skipped the contact links. Fields are shaped around how this product actually fails:retrieved_at, and match provenance name the upstream file the answer came from, which is usually the shortest path to a cause.The input field explicitly says to redact nothing: these are public records by law, so a redacted repro is harder to act on for no privacy gain.
Verification
Reach
Same limit as the other health files, and stated for the same reason: GitHub applies
.githubdefaults to public repositories, and the org's only other repo is private. Immediate reach is this repository.