Microsoft Launches XBOX Bounty Program Rewards Up to USD 20,000 for Critical Vulnerabilities

Microsoft launches XBOX Bounty Program, invites gamers, security researchers, and others around the world to find vulnerabilities in the Xbox Live network and services.

The rewards for the vulnerability provided based on the impact and the quality of the submission. Qualified submissions would get rewards of $500 to USD 20,000.

The goal of the bug bounty program is to uncover significant vulnerabilities that have a direct and demonstrable impact on the security of Microsoft’s customers, reads Microsoft blog post.

Eligible for Bug Bounty Rewards

The following are the eligibility criteria for bounty awards.

• Identify a previously unreported vulnerability that reproduces in our latest, fully patched version of Xbox Live network and services at the time of submission.
• Include clear, concise, and reproducible steps, either in writing or in video format.
• This allows submissions to be reviewed as quickly as possible and supports the highest bounty awards.

Vulnerabilities In-Scope

The following are the vulnerabilities eligible for the program

• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)
• Insecure direct object references
• Insecure deserialization
• Injection vulnerabilities
• Server-side code execution
• Significant security misconfiguration (when not caused by user)
• Demonstrable exploits in third-party components
• Requires full proof of concept (POC) of exploitability. For example, simply identifying an out of date library would not qualify for an award

“Since launching in 2002, the Xbox network has enabled millions of users to share their common love of gaming on a safe and secure service. The bounty program supplements our existing investments in security development and testing to uncover and remediate vulnerabilities that have a direct and demonstrable impact on the security of Xbox customers.”