Sentinel is a security analysis tool. We take the security of the tool itself seriously, because a compromised security analyzer is worse than no analyzer at all.

Security updates are provided for the current major version.

Sentinel validates SSL/TLS certificates by default using httpx. This is the correct and secure behavior.

Do not disable certificate validation in production.

Sentinel's analysis reports contain:

• Full URLs including paths and query parameters
• Server response headers (may contain sensitive information)
• Technology stack information
• Server configuration details

⚠️ Review reports before sharing publicly - they may contain sensitive information about your infrastructure.

Sentinel makes HTTP requests to user-specified URLs. Be aware that:

• Do not allow untrusted users to specify arbitrary URLs
• Do not run Sentinel with access to sensitive internal networks without restrictions
• Consider network segmentation and egress filtering
• Use the --timeout flag to prevent long-running requests

Example safe usage:

# Run with timeout limit
sentinel analyze example.com --timeout 10

# Don't allow untrusted input
sentinel analyze "$USER_INPUT"  # ❌ DANGEROUS

# Validate input first
if [[ "$URL" =~ ^https://example\.com ]]; then
    sentinel analyze "$URL"  # ✅ SAFER
fi

Sentinel relies on:

• httpx - Async HTTP client
• rich - Terminal rendering
• typer - CLI framework
• pytest and dev tools

We monitor these dependencies for security advisories. To check for vulnerabilities:

# Check for known vulnerabilities
pip-audit

# Update dependencies
pip install --upgrade sentinel-security-analyzer

Please do not report security vulnerabilities through public GitHub issues.

Option 1: GitHub Security Advisories (Preferred)

1. Go to the repository "Security" tab
2. Click "Report a vulnerability"
3. Fill out the private security advisory form

Option 2: Email

• Contact the maintainer through GitHub profile email
• Include detailed vulnerability information
• Encrypt sensitive details if possible

• Description: Clear explanation of the vulnerability
• Steps to Reproduce: Detailed reproduction steps
• Impact: Potential security impact
• Affected Versions: Which versions are vulnerable
• Suggested Fix: If you have one (optional)
• Your Contact: How we can reach you for follow-up

• Initial Response: Within 72 hours
• Status Update: Within 1 week
• Fix Timeline:
  • Critical: 48-72 hours
  • High: 1-2 weeks
  • Medium: 2-4 weeks
  • Low: Next planned release

1. Acknowledgment: We'll confirm receipt of your report
2. Validation: We'll investigate and assess the vulnerability
3. Communication: We'll keep you updated on progress
4. Disclosure: We'll coordinate public disclosure with you
5. Credit: We'll credit you in the security advisory (with your permission)

# Always install from official sources
pip install sentinel-security-analyzer

# Verify package
pip show sentinel-security-analyzer

# Use virtual environments (isolation)
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install sentinel-security-analyzer

# Set reasonable timeouts
sentinel analyze example.com --timeout 10

# Be cautious with untrusted domains
sentinel analyze suspicious-site.com --no-redirect

# Don't analyze internal services from untrusted networks
sentinel analyze internal.corp.com  # ⚠️ Consider network isolation

# Sanitize reports before sharing
report = await analyzer.analyze(url)

# Remove sensitive headers before logging/sharing
safe_headers = {
    k: v for k, v in report.headers.items()
    if k.lower() not in (
        'authorization',
        'cookie',
        'x-api-key',
        'set-cookie'
    )
}

• Coordinated Disclosure: We work with security researchers
• Responsible Timeline: 90 days for non-critical issues
• Public Credit: We acknowledge security researchers (with permission)
• Security Advisories: Published via GitHub Security Advisories

In Scope:

• Remote code execution
• Authentication/authorization bypass
• Information disclosure (unintended)
• Denial of service vulnerabilities
• Command injection
• SSRF vulnerabilities
• Path traversal
• Unsafe deserialization

Out of Scope:

• Social engineering attacks
• Physical access attacks
• Issues requiring local system access
• Known issues already documented
• Issues in third-party dependencies (report to upstream)
• Rate limiting on public APIs

Input Validation

• URL normalization and validation
• Timeout enforcement (default: 10 seconds)
• Redirect loop prevention (max: 10 hops)
• Header value sanitization

Safe Defaults

• Certificate validation enabled (cannot be disabled)
• Reasonable timeout values
• Limited redirect following
• No data persistence

Error Handling

• Graceful failure on invalid input
• No stack trace information disclosure
• Proper exception handling throughout

Type Safety

• Comprehensive type hints
• Static type checking with mypy
• Runtime validation where needed

When contributing code, ensure:

• No hardcoded credentials or secrets
• Input validation for all user-supplied data
• Proper error handling (no information leakage in errors)
• No unsafe deserialization
• No command injection vectors
• No path traversal vulnerabilities
• Dependencies are up to date
• Security-relevant changes are documented
• Tests cover security-relevant functionality
• No eval(), exec(), or similar dangerous functions
• Certificate validation not disabled

Note: Sentinel is an analysis tool, not a cryptographic implementation.

• We rely on httpx for TLS/SSL validation
• We do not implement custom cryptography
• We follow Python security best practices
• Certificate validation is always enabled

If you're security testing Sentinel:

Encouraged:

• Fuzzing the CLI with unusual inputs
• Testing with malformed HTTP responses
• Analyzing the code for vulnerabilities
• Checking dependencies for known issues

Please Report:

• Any command injection possibilities
• SSRF vectors
• Information disclosure issues
• Any way to bypass certificate validation

Testing Environment:

# Set up isolated testing environment
python -m venv test-venv
source test-venv/bin/activate
pip install sentinel-security-analyzer

# Test with various inputs
sentinel analyze "https://example.com"
sentinel analyze "http://localhost"
sentinel analyze "file:///etc/passwd"  # Should fail safely

If you believe Sentinel contributed to a security incident:

1. Document everything: Logs, commands, outputs
2. Isolate affected systems if needed
3. Contact us immediately via security advisory
4. Preserve evidence for investigation
5. Follow your incident response plan

• Security Issues: Use GitHub Security Advisories (preferred)
• General Questions: Open a public issue on GitHub
• Maintainer: Contact via GitHub profile

We recognize security researchers who responsibly disclose vulnerabilities:

No vulnerabilities reported yet. Be the first to help improve Sentinel's security!

Once vulnerabilities are reported and fixed, contributors will be listed here (with permission).

• OWASP Top 10
• CWE Top 25
• Python Security
• NIST Vulnerability Disclosure

• httpx Security
• pip-audit - Scan for known vulnerabilities
• Safety - Check Python dependencies

Last Updated: January 8, 2026
Version: 1.0

Security is not a feature, it's a foundation. We treat every report seriously and work to make Sentinel a trustworthy tool in your security toolkit.