Building a Bug Bounty Program
Bug bounty programs leverage the global security research community to find vulnerabilities in your applications. When done right, they provide continuous security testing at a fraction of the cost of traditional pentesting.
Program Types
Private Program
- Invitation-only researchers
- Controlled scope and testing
- Lower volume, higher quality
- Good starting point for new programs
Public Program
- Open to all researchers
- Higher volume of submissions
- Broader coverage
- Requires mature triage capabilities
Program Design
Scope Definition
Clearly define what's in and out of scope:In Scope:
- Production web applications
- Mobile applications
- APIs and microservices
- Cloud infrastructure
Out of Scope:
- Social engineering of employees
- Physical security testing
- Denial of service testing
- Third-party services
Reward Structure
| Severity | Reward Range |
|---|---|
| Critical (RCE, SQLi, Auth Bypass) | $5,000 - $25,000 |
| High (XSS, IDOR, SSRF) | $1,000 - $5,000 |
| Medium (CSRF, Info Disclosure) | $250 - $1,000 |
| Low (Best Practice, Minor) | $50 - $250 |
Safe Harbor Policy
Protect researchers who act in good faith:- No legal action for authorized testing
- Defined testing boundaries
- Responsible disclosure timeline
- Communication channels
Triage Process
- Receive report: Acknowledge within 24 hours
- Validate: Reproduce the vulnerability
- Classify: Assign severity rating
- Remediate: Fix the vulnerability
- Reward: Pay the bounty
- Communicate: Update the researcher throughout
Common Pitfalls
- Setting rewards too low (attracts only low-quality reports)
- Slow triage response (researchers lose interest)
- Unclear scope (disputes over validity)
- Not fixing reported issues (researchers share publicly)
Where SuperClue Fits
SuperClue does not integrate with bug bounty platforms. You can send its findings to Jira or GitHub Issues and triage them alongside bounty reports.