Google told researcher 'Nice catch!' Then denied bug bounty for flaw it still hasn't fixed
EXCLUSIVE 'Working as intended' for the win … again
Explore the latest bug bounty news, updates, and programs that reward ethical hackers for finding security vulnerabilities and threats.
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Background for this topic.
Bug bounty programs invite external security researchers to identify and report software vulnerabilities in exchange for rewards, usually monetary. These programs extend testing beyond internal teams by leveraging diverse expertise and real-world attack techniques, helping organizations uncover flaws that might otherwise remain hidden. Participants submit detailed vulnerability reports, which organizations validate and address according to defined scopes and rules.
From a security standpoint, bug bounties increase exposure by allowing controlled probing of live systems, which can reveal critical issues like remote code execution or privilege escalation. Effective programs require clear scope boundaries and efficient triage to prevent resource overload and ensure timely remediation. Integrating external findings into vulnerability management shortens the time between discovery and patching, reducing the risk that attackers exploit unpatched vulnerabilities in production environments.
Weekly headline count for the current query.
EXCLUSIVE 'Working as intended' for the win … again
Google paid researcher a tidy $55K bounty for its discovery
Critical flaw payouts slashed by more than 75%
A lesson in how not to respond to vulnerability reports UPDATED Vibe-coding platform Lovable is pooh-poohing a researcher’s finding that anyone could open a free account on the service and read other users' sensitive info, including credentials, chat history, and source code. However, the company’s story keeps changing: First it attributed the publicly exposed info to "intentional behavior" and "unclear documentation," then threw bug-bounty service HackerOne under the bus.…
Nearly 300 employees caught up in intrusion at benefits provider Navia Almost 300 HackerOne employees are caught up in a data breach, with the bug bounty biz slamming a third-party benefits provider for a weeks-long delay in notification.…
Goal is to run software locally and stream only to owners' computers If the sour taste has still not left your mouth after Ring's Super Bowl ad, there is a $10,000 prize for anyone who can find a security flaw in the company's cameras.…
Maintainer hopes hackers send bug reports anyway, will keep shaming ‘silly ones’ The maintainer of popular open-source data transfer tool cURL has ended the project’s bug bounty program after maintainers struggled to assess a flood of AI-generated contributions.…
Long after CVEs issued and open source flaws fixed Last fall, Jakub Ciolek reported two denial-of-service bugs in Argo CD, a popular Kubernetes controller, via HackerOne's Internet Bug Bounty (IBB) program. Both were assigned CVEs and have since been fixed. But instead of receiving an $8,500 reward for the two flaws, Ciolek says, HackerOne ghosted him for months.…
Critical vulnerabilities found in third-party applications eligible for award under 'in scope by default' move Microsoft is overhauling its bug bounty program to reward exploit hunters for finding vulnerabilities across all its products and services, even those without established bounty schemes.…
PLUS: China's Great Firewall springs a leak; FBI issues rare 'Flash Alert' of Salesforce attacks; $10m bounty for alleged Russian hacker; and more Infosec In Brief 15 ransomware gangs, including Scattered Spider and Lapsus$, have announced that they are going dark, and say no more attacks will be carried out in their name.…
Prosecutors claim Ukrainian ran LockerGoga, MegaCortex, and Nefilim ops – $11M bounty on his head A Ukrainian national faces serious federal charges and an $11 million bounty after allegedly orchestrating ransomware operations that caused an estimated $18 billion in damages across hundreds of organizations worldwide.…
Seven-year-old Cisco vuln that remains inexplicably unpatched is their way in The US State Department has put a $10 million bounty on the heads of three Russians accused of being intelligence agents hacking America's critical infrastructure - primarily via old Cisco kit, it seems.…
For incentives remember the three Fs – finance, fame, and fixing it feature Thirty years ago, Netscape kicked off the first commercial bug bounty program. Since then, companies large and small have bought into the idea, with mixed results.…
Maintainers struggle to handle growing flow of low-quality bug reports written by bots Daniel Stenberg, founder and lead developer of the open-source curl command line utility, just wants the AI slop to stop.…
Any info on Maxim Rudometov and his associates? There's $$$ in it for you The US government is offering up to $10 million for information on foreign government-backed threat actors linked to the RedLine malware, including its suspected developer, Maxim Alexandrovich Rudometov.…
Google dumped io_uring after $1M in bug bounties A proof-of-concept program has been released to demonstrate a so-called monitoring "blind spot" in how some Linux antivirus and other endpoint protection tools use the kernel's io_uring interface.…
Security bods can earn up to $10K per report Ransomware threat hunters can now collect rewards of $10,000 for each piece of intel they file under a new bug bounty that aims to squash extortionists.…
PLUS: OpenAI bumps bug bounties bigtime; INTERPOL arrests 300 alleged cyber-scammers; And more! Infosec in brief Oracle Health appears to have fallen victim to an info stealing attack that has led to patient data stored by American hospitals being plundered.…
Up to $140M in bounty rewards for return of Ethereum allegedly pilfered by hermit nation Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, just days after suspected North Korean operatives stole $1.5 billion in Ethereum from it, has launched a bounty program to help recover its funds.…
Said bugs 'can have significant implications' – glad to hear that from Redmond Microsoft is so concerned about security in its Copilot products for folks that it’s lifted bug bounty payments for moderate-severity vulnerabilities from nothing to a maximum of $5,000, and expanded the range of vulnerabilities it will pay people to find and report.…