What is a Bug Bounty Program?

A bug bounty program is a reward program offered by companies or organizations where external IT security experts are rewarded for discovering software vulnerabilities. These rewards can be monetary or material prizes and serve to uncover and fix security gaps in software, applications, or web services.

How do Bug Bounty Programs work?

Generally, there are two types of bug bounty programs: public and private. Public programs are open to everyone, while private programs are only accessible by invitation. IT security experts search for vulnerabilities and report them to the sponsoring company, which then awards the bounty if the vulnerability is confirmed - for this, the white hat hacker must be the first to report this security vulnerability - and it must meet certain minimum standards. Usually, the bug bounty policy is transparent, so participants know exactly which vulnerabilities are rewarded.

Public vs. Private Programs

Public programs are available to all interested parties. This is where one should start when looking for suitable challenges. Private programs, on the other hand, are aimed at selected experts and require an explicit invitation. Usually, only very experienced security experts are invited to these private programs. Typically, participating in a private program requires accepting and signing a separate set of rules. This often includes a confidentiality agreement, so very little is known externally about private programs and the security vulnerabilities found there.

Bounties and Bug Bounty Rewards

The size of bounties varies depending on the type and severity of the discovered vulnerability. Often, critical security vulnerabilities are rewarded with higher monetary amounts. Depending on the program and scope, a particularly critical security vulnerability can easily bring in a six-figure amount. There are also programs that offer material prizes or vouchers - however, this is rather the exception - as these programs - nicely put - are not particularly popular with hackers. Programs whose scope includes assets from the crypto sector are also very popular, as the rewards are often very high here - seven-figure rewards are not uncommon.

What are the advantages of Bug Bounty Programs?

Bug bounty programs offer benefits for companies, security experts, and end users. Therefore, it's important for companies to integrate these programs into their security strategy to proactively address vulnerabilities.

Benefits for Companies

1. Cost efficiency:
   Companies benefit from a variety of external experts, which can be more cost-effective than internal security audits.
2. Improved security:
   Bugs and vulnerabilities can be fixed before they are exploited for malicious purposes.

Benefits for Participants and Users

1. Financial incentives:
   Security experts can receive monetary rewards for their discoveries.
2. Secure products:
   End users benefit from more stable and secure applications and services.

Examples of Bug Bounty Programs

Especially in the USA, bug bounty programs have become established as an instrument in IT security. Companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Salesforce now operate their own platforms where hackers can report security vulnerabilities. Smaller companies often use platforms like HackerOne or BugCrowd. In Europe, platforms like Intigriti or YesWeHack have become established. There, one can legally report security vulnerabilities in European companies and be rewarded for it.

What are Vulnerability Disclosure Programs?

On platforms like BugCrowd or HackerOne, there are so-called VDPs. These are programs with clear rules on how security vulnerabilities should be reported. These programs are usually public and anyone can participate. There is usually no reward - except virtual points, which don't really bring much value. Accordingly, these programs are more frequented by inexperienced hackers who want to try themselves out in the world of IT security.

What problems occur in connection with Bug Bounty Programs?

Often, opinions differ on how critical a security vulnerability really is. This is suboptimal when the hacker thinks they've reported a severe vulnerability, but the program manager has a completely different opinion. This often requires discussion. There are also programs that are very slow in closing security vulnerabilities - from a white hat hacker perspective, this is annoying because it's not uncommon to report a vulnerability only to be quickly told that this vulnerability was already reported 2 years ago. This is frustrating and leads to hackers looking for other programs.

Especially in the environment of experienced hackers, one often carefully considers what to actually report, as one must assume that the program managers are often hackers themselves and participate in other programs. One might not want third parties to simply use one's own (profitable) knowledge.

Although various platforms publish annual reports and figures stating that "millions of hackers" are active worldwide on their platforms, the reality is different. Most hackers are indeed very young and inexperienced. This can quickly lead to frustration among program operators and the triage team when they receive the same report about a vulnerability in mass that some tool claims to have identified. The number of truly active hackers is probably in the thousands.

What are the limitations of Bug Bounty Programs?

The entire IT security strategy should not be based solely on BBP. These cover the perimeter quite well. However, IT infrastructure and threat scenarios in companies are much more complex and relate to many other aspects, such as internal security, insider threats, phishing and so on. Therefore, it's important that companies also invest in other security measures to protect themselves comprehensively.