# Security.txt > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Security.txt > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Security.txt.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security.txt > Source revision: 1346802559 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **security.txt** is an accepted standard for website security information that allows security researchers to report security vulnerabilities easily. The standard prescribes a [text file](/source/Text_file) named *security.txt* in the [well known](/source/Well-known_URIs) location, similar in syntax to [robots.txt](/source/Robots.txt) but intended to be machine and human readable, for those wishing to contact a website's owner about security issues.[1] security.txt files have been adopted by [Google](/source/Google), [GitHub](/source/GitHub), [LinkedIn](/source/LinkedIn), and [Facebook](/source/Facebook).[2] ## History The [Internet Draft](/source/Internet_Draft) was first submitted by Edwin Foudil in September 2017.[3] At that time it covered four directives, "Contact", "Encryption", "Disclosure" and "Acknowledgement". Foudil expected to add further directives based on feedback.[4] In addition, web security expert Scott Helme said he had seen positive feedback from the security community while use among the top 1 million websites was "as low as expected right now".[3] In 2019, the [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency](/source/Cybersecurity_and_Infrastructure_Security_Agency) (CISA) published a draft binding operational directive that requires all US federal agencies to publish a security.txt file within 180 days.[5][6] The [Internet Engineering Steering Group](/source/Internet_Engineering_Steering_Group) (IESG) issued a Last Call for security.txt in December 2019 which ended on January 6, 2020.[7] A study in 2021 found that over ten percent of top-100 websites published a security.txt file, with the percentage of sites publishing the file decreasing as more websites were considered.[8] The study also noted a number of discrepancies between the standard and the content of the file. In April 2022 the security.txt file has been accepted by [Internet Engineering Task Force](/source/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force) (IETF) as . ## File format security.txt files can be served under the [/.well-known/](/source/Well-known_URI) directory (i.e. /.well-known/security.txt) or the top-level directory (i.e. /security.txt) of a website. The file must be served over [HTTPS](/source/HTTPS) and in [plaintext](/source/Text_file) format.[9] ## See also - [ads.txt](/source/Ads.txt) - [humans.txt](/source/Humans.txt) - [robots.txt](/source/Robots.txt) - [trust.txt](/source/Trust.txt) ## References 1. ["The Telltale Text File: Security Researcher Proposes Standard for Reporting Vulnerabilities"](https://securityintelligence.com/news/the-telltale-text-file-security-researcher-proposes-standardization-for-reporting-vulnerabilities/). *Security Intelligence*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190414214152/https://securityintelligence.com/news/the-telltale-text-file-security-researcher-proposes-standardization-for-reporting-vulnerabilities/) 2019-04-14 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-04-14. 1. Cimpanu, Catalin (2019-11-29). ["iOS apps could really benefit from the newly proposed Security.plist standard"](https://www.zdnet.com/article/ios-apps-could-really-benefit-from-the-newly-proposed-security-plist-standard/). *ZDNet*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20200811214644/https://www.zdnet.com/article/ios-apps-could-really-benefit-from-the-newly-proposed-security-plist-standard/) 2020-08-11 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-06-16. 1. Leyden, John (3 January 2018). ["Bug-finders' scheme: Tick-tock, this tech's tested by flaws.. but who the heck do you tell?"](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/03/security_notification_scheme/). *www.theregister.co.uk*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190414214153/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/03/security_notification_scheme/) 2019-04-14 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-04-14. 1. ["Security.txt Standard Proposed, Similar to Robots.txt"](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/security-txt-standard-proposed-similar-to-robots-txt/). *BleepingComputer*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190414214154/https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/security-txt-standard-proposed-similar-to-robots-txt/) 2019-04-14 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-04-14. 1. ["CISA Seeks Comments on How Government Should Handle Vulnerability Reports"](https://duo.com/decipher/cisa-seeks-comments-on-how-government-should-handle-vulnerability-reports). *Decipher*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20200129172755/https://duo.com/decipher/cisa-seeks-comments-on-how-government-should-handle-vulnerability-reports) 2020-01-29 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-01-29. 1. Kuldell, Heather (2019-12-18). ["CISA Still Wants Your Thoughts on Its Vulnerability Disclosure Policy"](https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2019/12/cisa-still-wants-your-thoughts-its-vulnerability-disclosure-policy/161989/). *Nextgov.com*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20200129174231/https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2019/12/cisa-still-wants-your-thoughts-its-vulnerability-disclosure-policy/161989/) 2020-01-29 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-01-29. 1. ["Security.txt – IESG issues final call for comment on proposed vulnerability reporting standard"](https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/security-txt-iesg-issues-final-call-for-comment-on-proposed-vulnerability-reporting-standard). *The Daily Swig | Cybersecurity news and views*. 2019-12-12. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20200921033653/https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/security-txt-iesg-issues-final-call-for-comment-on-proposed-vulnerability-reporting-standard) 2020-09-21 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-03-30. 1. Poteat, Tara & Li, Frank (November 2021). [*Who you gonna call?: an empirical evaluation of website security.txt deployment*](https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3487552.3487841). Internet Measurement Conference. Online: ACM. pp. 526–532. [doi:10.1145/3487552.3487841](https://doi.org/10.1145/3487552.3487841). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250609082202/https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3487552.3487841) 2025-06-09 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-03-19. 1. ["Characterizing the Adoption of Security.txt Files"](https://people.scs.carleton.ca/~abdou/findlay2022_madweb_authors_copy.pdf). *Characterizing the Adoption of Security.txt Files*. 2022-02-11. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250610165458/https://people.scs.carleton.ca/~abdou/findlay2022_madweb_authors_copy.pdf) 2025-06-10 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-03-01. ## External links - [Official website](https://securitytxt.org/) - [Example of a security.txt file](https://en.wikipedia.org/.well-known/security.txt) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Security.txt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security.txt) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security.txt?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.