This repository adheres to the Apex Technical Authority standard for security diligence, treating all documentation and knowledge assets as critical infrastructure.

We value the security and integrity of this knowledge base. If you discover any security vulnerability, architectural flaw that introduces systemic risk, or data exposure within this handbook or its associated tooling, please follow these responsible disclosure steps immediately.

DO NOT report security vulnerabilities via public GitHub Issues or Pull Requests. This ensures prompt, private remediation.

1. Email Notification: Immediately send a detailed report to the maintainer's designated security channel: [email protected].
2. Sensitivity: In the subject line, prefix the email with [VULNERABILITY DISCLOSURE]. Avoid including sensitive data (like keys or full exploits) in the initial contact; describe the nature and location of the issue.
3. Acknowledgement: We commit to acknowledging receipt of your report within 48 hours.

Our goal is to analyze, triage, and deploy fixes for security issues swiftly, adhering to the principles of Zero-Defect maintenance:

• Critical/High Severity: Fix deployment targeted within 7 business days of verification.
• Medium/Low Severity: Fix deployment targeted within 14 business days of verification.

This repository leverages GitHub Advanced Security features where applicable, and all CI/CD pipelines enforce basic security checks:

• Dependency Review: Automated scanning for vulnerable dependencies (although this handbook is primarily documentation, associated build tooling is scanned).
• CodeQL Analysis: Runs on every push to the default branch to detect common programming flaws in any executable components (e.g., build scripts, setup utilities).
• Secrets Scanning: GitHub's Secret Scanning is enabled to prevent accidental committal of sensitive tokens.

Note: Since this is primarily a documentation repository, the most critical security vectors are dependency integrity in setup scripts (Node/Python) and data validation in Markdown/Configuration files.

All content and contributing structures are governed by these security-centric design principles:

• Principle of Least Privilege (POLP): No code or configuration within this repository grants more access than strictly necessary for its function (e.g., CI/CD roles).
• Defense in Depth: Security is layered. No single failure point should compromise the entire knowledge base.
• Immutability & Auditability: All changes are tracked via Git history, creating an immutable audit trail. Pull Requests require explicit review and sign-off before merging.

If you find an issue related to a third-party library or external resource cited within the handbook (e.g., links to external tools), please indicate this clearly in your report so we can verify the source integrity.