What Are Bug Bounties and How Do They Work?
When you’re responsible for defending an expanding attack surface, the biggest challenge is staying ahead of the vulnerabilities you can’t see yet.
Modern systems change quickly with new features, new integrations, new AI-driven components, and every update can create opportunities for issues to slip through even the strongest internal testing.
Instead of relying solely on your own team, bug bounties invite trusted security researchers to uncover real vulnerabilities under a defined set of rules. They bring fresh perspectives, diverse skill sets, and the same creative thinking that real attackers use, turning their findings into actionable insights your team can fix before they become real problems.
What Is a Bug Bounty?
A bug bounty program is a structured way for organizations to reward security researchers who uncover and responsibly report vulnerabilities. Organizations define the scope, expectations, and payout ranges, and researchers earn bounties for confirmed issues that strengthen your overall security posture.
A bug bounty is the monetary reward given to security researchers for successfully discovering and reporting a vulnerability or bug to the application's developer.
Programs fall into a few categories:
- Private: Invite-only, ideal when you want a smaller, trusted group of researchers to examine early-stage products or sensitive environments. Private programs can also run alongside a public program, giving selected researchers deeper access to features that need focused testing.
- Public: Open to any eligible researcher, creating broad coverage and bringing in a wide range of testing approaches and expertise.
- Time-bound: Short, concentrated testing periods often aligned with major launches or key events, designed to generate rapid insight.
Bounty programs complement vulnerability disclosure programs (VDP), and round out a layered defense along with penetration testing and red teaming strategies, providing a way for organizations to test their applications’ security throughout their development life cycles.
How Does a Bug Bounty Program Work?
Organizations launching a bug bounty program start by defining scope and setting a budget. Scope outlines which assets security researchers can test and sets expectations for how testing should be performed.
For instance, you may keep certain domains out of scope or specify that testing must not interrupt day-to-day operations. Clear scope helps you gain meaningful security insights without disrupting productivity or core business functions.
Competitive reward ranges signal to the research community that your organization takes vulnerability discovery seriously. Most programs tie payouts to the severity of validated issues, with higher-impact vulnerabilities earning higher rewards.
Recognition also matters. Many researchers value leaderboards, reputation points, and opportunities to showcase their expertise as much as monetary payouts. These systems help researchers build credibility across the community.
When a researcher finds a vulnerability, they submit a detailed report that explains the issue, its potential impact, and the steps needed to reproduce it. This level of detail helps your engineering teams validate the finding quickly. Once the vulnerability is confirmed, the researcher receives the appropriate bounty.
Bounty amounts vary by organization and severity. While some issues earn modest payouts, critical discoveries can be worth substantial rewards. After validation, engineering teams prioritize remediation based on severity, address the vulnerability, and retest to ensure the fix works as intended.
Successful Bug Bounty Programs
Some of the biggest brands around the world use bounty programs to keep their applications and customers safe.
TikTok turned to HackerOne’s bug bounty program to strengthen security across its rapidly expanding platform, giving trusted security researchers continuous access to test real assets and uncover vulnerabilities before they could be exploited.
The results speak for themselves: thousands of vulnerabilities identified and resolved, more than $400,000 paid out in a single live event, and nearly $3 million in total bounties, helping TikTok reduce remediation costs, improve early-stage testing, and maintain a safer experience for its global community.
See the full scope of the TikTok program
Adobe has spent the past decade using HackerOne’s bug bounty program to strengthen the security of its products and services, working with thousands of ethical hackers to uncover and resolve vulnerabilities at scale. The program has helped Adobe efficiently address more than 7,400 vulnerability reports and engage over 1,400 researchers, with rapid response times that average just eight hours.
These findings have improved Adobe’s product resilience, enhanced internal detection and response processes, and supported safer innovation across both traditional applications and generative AI offerings.
Learn about the impact of Adobe’s program
How Can I Set Up My Own Bug Bounty Program?
Working with a reputable bug bounty partner, organizations begin by following three key steps that attract and build trust with talented researchers, and lay the foundation for sustainable success.
- Define and document scope: Identify your highest-value assets, capture key details for each one, and outline scope rules and exclusions.
- Set balanced incentives: Benchmark bounty ranges, monitor performance with analytics, and adjust rewards as engagement grows.
- Support with a responsive team: Assign dedicated ownership, establish SLAs, and use automation or AI to streamline routing, communication, and payouts.
Your Next Step Toward a Stronger Security Program
A strong bug bounty program blends three core elements: clear scope, fair incentives, and a responsive process for validating and fixing vulnerabilities. When you define which assets matter most, establish a transparent bounty structure, and give researchers fast, consistent feedback, you create an environment where high-quality findings thrive.
The payoff is significant.
Learn more about HackerOne’s Bug Bounty capabilities, and get started by contacting our security experts.
