Understanding Bug Bounty Hunting#

As we already know, a weakness is a flaw in a program that lets a hostile individual conduct an unauthorized activity or obtain access to data. Wouldn’t it be nice if a software application company remediate a vulnerability in a technology or service it provides before a malicious actor does? Well, you can achieve this in many ways such as hiring internal security professionals, paying for a penetration testing as a service platform and so on. In today’s blog post, we are going to add another group of skilled individuals who are called bug bounty hunters and define who they are, what is bug bounty hunting, what is a bounty-hunting program and what are some differences between a vulnerability rewards program (VRP) and A vulnerability disclosure program (VDP) are.

What is bug bounty hunting?#

Bug bounty hunting is a technique for discovering weak spots in online apps; program manufacturers grant rewards, thus the bug bounty hunter may make an income while doing so. Software companies pay hackers to find and report flaws in their technology, online services, and mobile applications. Corporate security professionals, either minor or major, require an additional assessment from other real-world attackers to evaluate their apps. This is also why companies contact platforms to find external contractors, often known as bug bounty hunters, to help them with this.

Who are bug hunters?#

Bug bounty hunters have a diverse mix of abilities that they employ to evaluate programs from various suppliers and disclose vulnerabilities in products. Next, they generate vulnerability reports and transmit them to the bounty program’s owner, who promptly fixes the issues. If the report is accepted by the firm, you are compensated.

What exactly is a bug bounty program?#

The vulnerability rewards program (VRP), often known as the bug bounty program, allows corporations to compensate hackers personally for their efforts in uncovering flaws in the program owner’s software. The bug bounty program may be integrated into an institution’s operations to help with security audits and vulnerability analysis, complementing the company’s cybersecurity posture. Today, a lot of technology and service providers have established their own bug bounty systems, which compensate hackers who discover flaws in their products.

Differences between VRP and VDP#

VRP and VDP are two distinct programs. A bug bounty provides a financial motivation, but a VDP does not (though a company may award swag). A VDP is simply a method for ethical hackers to disclose weaknesses to a corporation so that the organization may address them. The bug bounty submissions given to the organizations must include detailed details as well as mock-ups of the vulnerabilities. This allows programmers to reproduce the bug in the same way that the researcher discovered it. Typically, the benefits are determined by the size of the company, the degree of work expended to detect the weakness, the complexity of the weakness, as well as the impact on customers.

Conclusion#

As the page shows, bug bounties are presently among the most common ways for corporations to get reviews on security problems. Upon completion of this page, now you have a basic understanding of what is bug bounty hunting.

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