Piano di risposta agli incidenti per Weblate

Scope and objectives

This IRP covers incidents impacting the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of Weblate-operated deployments.

Nota

This plan is specifically designed for deployments operated by Weblate s.r.o. Other deployments need to adapt provider-specific and organizational steps to their own environment.

Handling an incident

One team member handles the incident and names an available teammate as a backup. They coordinate investigation, containment, recovery, reporting, and user communication, asking other teammates or outside specialists for help when needed. The backup takes over when the handler is unavailable.

Use Incident reporting for reporting decisions, deadlines, and a private incident note. No separate management approval is needed to begin responding.

Logistica della comunicazione

• Comunicazione interna:

  • Primary channel is Signal for human-to-human coordination.

  • Technical alerts remain outside of Signal to avoid noise.

• Comunicazione esterna:

  • E-mail is used to reach customers.

  • Customer contact lists are maintained in several locations to ensure access during service outages.

• Public Disclosure:

  • If an incident includes a Weblate product vulnerability, follow the product vulnerability reporting process and Vulnerability disclosure policy in Vulnerability and incident handling.

Categorie e gravità degli incidenti

Incident activation

• Declare an incident when an event is confirmed or strongly suspected to affect the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of the service beyond routine operational noise.

• Whoever identifies the incident alerts teammates through Signal. An available teammate takes responsibility, records the initial severity, and names a backup.

• Reclassify the incident if the scope or impact changes during investigation.

Categorie di incidenti

• Category 1 – Unauthorized Access

• Category 2 – Data Integrity Violation

• Category 3 – Service Outage or Degradation

• Category 4 – Misconfiguration or Deployment Error

Severity levels and SLAs

These are operational response targets, not a statement of continuous staffing. Assess product-security reporting separately using Incident reporting; these targets do not extend reporting deadlines.

Gravità	Definizione	Riconoscimento del bersaglio	Obiettivo dell’azione iniziale
Critical	Total outage; Admin compromise; Active data breach; requires immediate containment.	< 30 Minutes	< 4 Hours
Alto	Core feature failure; PII leak of single user.	< 2 Hours	12 Hours
Medio	Performance degradation; Minor security issue.	1 Business Day	3 Business Days
Basso	UI bugs; Staging issues; Non-security errors.	Best Effort	Best Effort

Incident response lifecycle

Preparazione

• Ensure regular daily backups of the PostgreSQL database and the data directory using Weblate’s built-in backup with rotation, see Backing up and moving Weblate.

• Ensure Weblate uses a properly configured reverse proxy (e.g., NGINX) with HTTPS (TLS 1.2+).

• Enable 2FA for all admin-level accounts.

• Keep the Weblate instance and its dependencies (Python, Django, Celery, database, etc.) up to date.

• Integrate with SIEM systems using the GELF protocol for audit and application log forwarding.

• Complete the preparation checklist in Incident reporting and keep private contact and access details current.

Identificazione

• Monitor system and application logs (journalctl, reverse proxy logs, Weblate application and audit logs).

• Analyze login events, webhook executions, and push/pull failures.

• Configure alerting (via Prometheus, Zabbix, or SIEM) for multiple login failures, unexpected restarts, or irregular VCS actions.

• Record awareness times and assess authority and user notifications using Incident reporting, without waiting for a complete investigation.

• Assess whether a security incident caused accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, or alteration of personal data, or unauthorized disclosure or access, and follow Personal-data breach notifications. This includes availability or integrity breaches without disclosure, such as accidental deletion or ransomware destruction. Seek privacy advice where needed while continuing investigation and reporting preparation.

Personal-data breach notifications

The incident handler determines whether Weblate acts as controller or processor for the affected processing and records the assessment in the private incident note. Under GDPR Article 33:

• As controller, notify the competent supervisory authority without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours of becoming aware of the personal-data breach, unless the breach is unlikely to result in a risk to individuals” rights and freedoms. Record the reason for a decision not to notify.

• If notification takes longer than 72 hours, include the reasons for the delay. Where information cannot be supplied together, provide it in stages without undue further delay.

• As processor, notify the controller without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal-data breach; do not wait for the controller’s 72-hour deadline.

The controller’s supervisory-authority notification must include the following information under Article 33(3):

• The nature of the breach, including, where possible, the categories and approximate numbers of affected individuals and personal-data records.

• The name and contact details of the person who can provide further information, such as the incident handler or a data protection officer if one is appointed.

• The likely consequences of the breach.

• Measures taken or proposed to address the breach, including measures to reduce its adverse effects where appropriate.

Identify information that is not yet available and provide it in follow-up notifications without undue further delay. Do not wait for exact counts before notifying the authority.

As controller, separately assess communication to affected individuals under GDPR Article 34. If the breach is likely to create a high risk to their rights and freedoms, inform them without undue delay unless an Article 34(3) exception applies. This applies even without active exploitation or a severe product-security incident. Notification to the supervisory authority does not replace this communication.

Explain the breach in clear language, giving a contact for further information, likely consequences, measures taken or proposed, and actions individuals can take. Record the assessment and any exception relied on: effective protection of the affected data, such as encryption making it unreadable to unauthorized people, or subsequent measures ensuring the high risk is no longer likely. If individual communication would involve disproportionate effort, use public communication or a similar measure that informs individuals equally effectively. See the EDPB data-breach guidance.

Record breach-awareness timestamps, recipients, and deadlines separately from CRA reporting. A CRA submission does not replace a GDPR notification, and the two reporting clocks may start at different times.

Contenimento

• Maintain the private incident note from Incident reporting, including timeline updates, reporting deadlines, and submission receipts.

• Coordinate human response in Signal and keep technical alerting in the existing monitoring systems.

• For Category 1 or 2 incidents, create a manual Hetzner Cloud Snapshot before taking disruptive action when it is safe to do so.

  • Name format: IRP-[CaseID]-[YYYYMMDD]-Evidence.

  • These are separate from standard rotating backups and must be preserved for analysis.

• Isolate the affected host or service as needed (for example by firewall rules or service isolation).

• Disable external integrations (Git/webhooks) if they are part of the attack vector.

• Suspend affected user accounts immediately.

• Revoke or rotate affected administrative, API, VCS, and webhook credentials as applicable.

• Preserve relevant evidence, including system logs, reverse proxy logs, Weblate application and audit logs, affected configuration state, and the list of impacted credentials or integrations.

Eradicazione

• Remove any unauthorized code or data.

• Patch known vulnerabilities by upgrading Weblate or server components.

• Validate binary and repository integrity using SHA-256 checksums or Git logs.

Recupero

• Restore affected services or data from the latest known-good Weblate backups.

• Reintroduce services in a phased approach.

• Confirm the root cause has been removed or a compensating control is in place before restoring normal traffic.

• Rotate affected credentials and verify integrity of the restored system, repositories, and configuration.

• The handler records the decision to return to normal operations, checking recovery with the backup or another teammate where practical.

• Monitor logs and system behavior continuously for at least 72 hours post-recovery.

Revisione post-incidente

• Timeline: Hold a short team review within 5 business days of incident closure.

• Compile a full incident timeline and actions taken.

• Perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and document it within 10 business days.

• Update security policies and IRP documentation based on findings.

• Review the effectiveness of detection and containment mechanisms.

• Verify whether escalation, alerting, and external communication followed Vulnerability and incident handling as expected.

• Check for outstanding reports, promised updates, and delayed disclosures before closing the incident note.