We provide security updates for the following versions of the Advanced Earthquake Prediction System:

If you discover a security vulnerability in this project, please report it responsibly:

1. DO NOT open a public GitHub issue
2. Email: Send details to the maintainers privately (use GitHub's private vulnerability reporting)
3. Include:
   • Description of the vulnerability
   • Steps to reproduce
   • Potential impact
   • Suggested fix (if known)

• Initial response: Within 48 hours
• Assessment: Within 1 week
• Fix development: 2-4 weeks depending on complexity
• Public disclosure: After fix is released and users have time to update

• Code injection vulnerabilities in data processing
• Unauthorized access to system resources
• Data exposure of sensitive geological information
• Denial of service vulnerabilities in ML processing

• API key exposure for external data sources
• Unauthorized data modification in prediction algorithms
• Privacy issues in location-based analysis
• Malicious input handling in user-provided coordinates

• Educational disclaimers: This is research software, not production safety software
• Prediction accuracy: Scientific limitations in earthquake prediction
• Performance issues: Slow calculations or large memory usage
• Dependency vulnerabilities: In third-party packages (report to those projects)

# Always use virtual environments
python3 -m venv earthquake_venv
source earthquake_venv/bin/activate

# Verify package integrity
pip install --require-hashes -r requirements.txt

# Keep dependencies updated
pip list --outdated
pip install --upgrade package-name

• Don't process sensitive location data in production environments
• Validate all input coordinates before processing
• Use secure networks when fetching USGS API data
• Keep generated maps private if they contain sensitive infrastructure data

• Monitor API usage to USGS and other external services
• Implement rate limiting if integrating into larger systems
• Cache API responses to reduce external dependencies
• Validate API responses before processing

• Input validation for all user-provided data
• Sanitize file paths in output generation
• Avoid eval() or exec() with user input
• Use secure defaults in configuration

# Regularly update dependencies
pip install --upgrade pip
pip list --outdated
pip install --upgrade package-name

# Audit for known vulnerabilities
pip audit

• Test with malicious inputs (invalid coordinates, extreme values)
• Validate error handling doesn't expose sensitive information
• Test file system permissions for output generation
• Verify external API error handling

1. Educational Purpose: Not designed for production safety-critical systems
2. External Dependencies: Relies on third-party APIs and libraries
3. Input Validation: Limited validation of geological data inputs
4. Output Files: Generated files may contain location information

• Clear documentation about appropriate use cases
• Input sanitization where user data is processed
• Error handling that doesn't expose system information
• Regular dependency updates and security monitoring

When contributing code, please ensure:

• Input validation for all user-provided parameters
• Error messages don't expose sensitive system information
• File operations use safe path handling
• External API calls include timeout and error handling
• Dependencies are from trusted sources and up-to-date
• Code comments don't contain sensitive information
• Test data doesn't include real sensitive locations

In case of a confirmed security vulnerability:

1. Immediate: Assess impact and develop fix
2. Communication: Notify affected users through GitHub security advisories
3. Patch Release: Deploy fix as soon as possible
4. Documentation: Update security documentation and practices
5. Prevention: Implement measures to prevent similar issues

• Security Issues: Use GitHub's private vulnerability reporting
• General Questions: Open a GitHub issue with the security label
• Project Maintainers: See CONTRIBUTORS.md for current maintainer list

This security policy will be reviewed and updated:

• Quarterly: Regular review of practices and procedures
• After incidents: Following any security-related issues
• Version releases: With major version updates
• Community feedback: Based on user and contributor input

Last Updated: August 4, 2025 Version: 1.0 Next Review: November 4, 2025