Here, I'll quote it for you:
> [NOTE: This bug is subject to a 90-day disclosure deadline. After 90 days elapse or a patch has been made broadly available, the bug report - including any comments and attachments - will become visible to the public.]
Google waited a full week after the patch has been made available then they disclosed it.
This incentivizes companies not to announce their patches, not to coordinate with Google, and to only update in secret, because as soon as they tell Google they have a patch, the clock runs down in 7 days, rather than 90. This is a dangerous policy.
It would be reasonable to tell Google that they have a patch, show them the patch, and tell that's going to be released on third thursday of September or whatever, and the disclosure should wait until that - that's compatible with that policy. Showing the patch to Google and coordinating with them doesn't start the clock, the clock starts when you start sending the patch to random users.
It's not acceptable to release a patch to the general public and then delay the disclosure for weeks. Once Epic discloses the vulnerability to the bad guys (by making the patch broadly available), the good guys i.e. the general public needs to know the details ASAP.
The 90 day buffer is the time for analyzing the vulnerability and developing (and testing) a fix for it - but not for deploying the fix; deployment must be much, much faster than that, preferably on a single day.
I guarantee Fortnite wishes they had silently released the patch and hope Google didn't know.
I'm guessing they might in the future.
Anyone can break apart the patch and figure out what was changed, meaning they can figure out the security issue and take advantage of it. At this point, both Epic and Google are at fault for not disclosing the details and warning people to update right away.
If you think people should be warned right away, Epic should have the right to notify its own users, and Google should have the basic decency to reply to a request to coordinate.
Google found the bug, they have the right to disclose it however they want. There are no legal standards anywhere that requires anyone to do anything with bug reports.
Epic doesn't have any rights here, it sucks but they're not entitled to anything. I hate this because I've experienced this from Google before (at work), I would love to have that right to hold up to 90 days before we can notify people but until there are legal standards, there is no right.
They have an ethical obligation. Security disclosures have major ethical concerns. If you're acting unethically, you are a dick.
Sure, Epic doesn't have any rights here. But we don't need a law to know people [and corporations] should not be dicks.
Google could have been more ethical by replying to the vendor after making their initial communication. They chose not to.
You are correct in that Google has an ethical obligation; and they and met it by protecting all Android users. I would say that Google making this announcement lets all Android users know that its not safe to just randomly install apps on your phone. Yes, they allow it, but at the same time the public is genuinely ignorant of any type of security practices.
This is a non-sequitur. You are equivocating between legal obligation and ethical obligation.
Google's original view of the situation was that installers like this make devices measurably less secure (to which Epic's response was pretty meh), and the installer being exploitable to install pretty much anything only proved that point and then some.
...and frankly, it would not matter who wrote the installer if it got used for a mass infection and attack. Google would still get the bad press and a generous helping of blame because of the trashy way so many "tech reporters" behave to get those mouse clicks.
If Epic needed more time to prepare for deploying the patch, then they should have released the patch later, coordinating with Google - they certainly had time left for that, up to these 90 days. But once Epic started the clock by making the patch widely available, it is unreasonable to wait anything comparable to 90 days. Google should have disclosed the vulnerability on the same day as the patch, since the patch also 'discloses' the vulnerability to those who would use it. Delaying it for a day or two could be mostly safe; 7 days is pushing it, anything more than that is not a good idea - by that time the bad guys know the vulnerability anyway, and the delay is just harming everyone else.