Uber Launches Bug Bounty Program

After a year of beta testing with some 200 security experts who found nearly 100 bugs, Uber officially launched its bug bounty program yesterday.

The new bug bounty program--in collaboration with HackerOne--is designed for white hat hackers to identify flaws in Uber's codebase; critical bugs could yield up to $10,000 in rewards, the company said. Uber's first reward program will run for 90 days, starting on May 1, and it includes a loyalty program.

To be eligible for the reward program, hackers/researchers must be able to find at least four bugs that Uber validates as genuine. If any fifth issue has been reported by anyone within the same phase of three months, they would be eligible for an extra bonus. According to Uber, this incentive amount would be 10% of the average amount paid for first four bugs reported in that session.

Uber's chief ecurity officer Joe Sullivan said that constantly keeping an eye on Uber's system is essential to improve quality and the bug bounty program will help in securing the code. Uber says it will share publicly the "highest-quality" vulnerability discoveries if the winners who found them agree to the disclosure.

"We believe that bug bounty programs are an important part of the modern software development lifecycle. Our unique program combines healthy rewards, a loyalty program, and a ‘treasure map’ of information to incentivize our community to find even the most subtle bugs as we work together to protect users," said Uber Chief Information Security Officer John “Four” Flynn.

For more specifics on Uber’s bug bounty announcement, click here.