Internet Bug Bounty program hits pause on payouts

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Apr 3, 20262 mins

HackerOne is the latest organization to struggle with AI submissions.

2550174839 Viruses in the program. Bugs and errors. Backdoor for hackers and malware hidden in the program. Cyber security and protection of device data.
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Researchers who identify and report bugs in open-source software will no longer be rewarded by the Internet Bug Bounty team. HackerOne, which administers the program, has said that it is “pausing submissions” while it contemplates ways in which open source security can be handled more effectively.

The Internet Bug Bounty program, funded by a number of leading software companies, has been run since 2012 and has awarded more than $1.5m to researchers who have reported bugs. Up to now, 80% of its payouts have been for discoveries of new flaws, and 20% to support remediation efforts. But as artificial intelligence makes it easier to find bugs, that balance needs to change, HackerOne said in a statement.

“AI-assisted research is expanding vulnerability discovery across the ecosystem, increasing both coverage and speed. The balance between findings and remediation capacity in open source has substantively shifted,” said HackerOne.

Among the first programs to be affected is the Node.js project, a server-side JavaScript platform for web applications known for its extensive ecosystem. While the project team will continue to accept and triage bug reports through HackerOne, without funding from the Internet Bug Bounty program it will no longer pay out rewards, according to an announcement on its website.

The Internet Bug Bounty Program is not the only bug-hunting project that has struggled with the onset of AI in vulnerability hunting. In January, the Curl program said that it was not taking any more submissions. And just last month, Google also put a halt to AI-generated submissions provided to its Open Source Software Vulnerability Reward Program.

Maxwell Cooter

Maxwell began writing about technology in 1984, when mainframes ruled the world. Since then he has written for just about every business computing title in the UK, and for a few in the US, covering everything from Artificial intelligence to Zero-day exploits and all points in between. He has also been editor-in-chief of several award-winning titles, including Network Week, Techworld, and Cloud Pro, and a regular contributor to Whatsonstage.com. In his spare time he coaches a junior rugby team.

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