Google's new policy gives developers more time to address security flaws

Google's Project Zero disclosure program is supposed to encourage releases of security fixes in a timely fashion, but things haven't gone according to plan. Premature disclosures, half-hearted fixes and other issues have been a little too common. The company might address some of those problems in 2020, though. It recently revised its policies in a bid to encourage both more "thorough" security patches and wider adoption of those patches. Most notably, Google will wait 90 days to disclose a flaw even if it's fixed well ahead of that deadline. If developers act quickly, they'll have more time to both distribute patches and make sure that fixes address the root cause of a flaw.

There are more reforms. If there's an incomplete fix, it'll be reported to the developer and added to an existing report. Before, it would sometimes be treated as a separate problem with its own deadline. Google will also open tracker reports the moment a flaw is patched during the "grace period" (a 14-day window available if a developer will just miss the 90-day target) and on the 90th day.

Google plans to test the revamped Project Zero approach throughout the whole of 2020, and might make it permanent if there aren't problems.