Bug Bounty Triage & Program Support
A bounty program lives or dies on triage. Slow, inconsistent or dismissive handling drives away the researchers you want and floods you with duplicates. I've been the primary validator on a public program for a high-traffic platform: reproducing reports, assigning CVSS, escalating real issues and verifying fixes.
- Typical timeline
- Ongoing retainer
- Engagement
- Monthly retainer
- Deliverable
- Report, PoC evidence and retest
What the work covers.
Intake & validation
Every report reproduced against current production behaviour, with a clear accept, duplicate or not-applicable decision and the reason behind it.
Reproduction & impact
Working proof and an honest impact statement. No inflated severity, and nothing real gets waved away.
CVSS scoring
Consistent, defensible scores across submissions, with the vector documented so researchers understand the decision.
Escalation & engineering comms
Clear, actionable tickets with reproduction steps, affected versions and a suggested direction for the fix.
Retest & closure
Verification that the fix holds, a clean closure note, and coordinated disclosure support where it is appropriate.
Program tuning
Scope, reward bands and policy wording adjusted from real submission data, so noise goes down and good research gets rewarded.
How the engagement runs.
No engagement starts without a written scope and agreed rules of engagement. Testing windows, contacts and escalation paths are fixed before anything is touched.
What I need from you
- Scope: URLs, apps, IP ranges or accounts in scope
- One technical contact and one escalation contact
- A testing window, or written approval to test 24/7
- Credentials for the roles that should be tested
- 01
Scope
A short call, then a written scope. Targets, rules of engagement, testing windows and anything that is out of bounds.
- 02
Test
Manual work against the real attack surface, with automated tooling where it helps. Findings are confirmed before they reach the report.
- 03
Prove
Every issue comes with reproduction steps, a CVSS score and a realistic impact statement. Critical is just a word without evidence.
- 04
Verify
After remediation I retest each finding and confirm it is closed. Most engagements stop before this step. This is the one that counts.
Often paired with
Application & API Penetration Testing
Manual, OWASP-aligned testing of your web app and APIs. Authentication, access control, business logic, and the flaws that only appear when someone actually tries to break in.
Cloud & Infrastructure Security Review
A focused review of the cloud and Linux estate your product sits on. Identity, object storage, network exposure, and the CDN edge in front of it.
Ready to scope this work?
Send a short description of the environment and what you need to know. You will get an honest read on scope, timeline and whether this is the right engagement.
Typically replies within one business day. NDA on request.
enes.ismaili@gmail.com