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> If you do not have a paid Apple Developer Account, please sign up at <our site>, pay the membership fee and send us the associated Developer ID. You can’t ma
by AnonC 5y ago
> If you do not have a paid Apple Developer Account, please sign up at <our site>, pay the membership fee and send us the associated Developer ID.
You can’t make this stuff up! It’s completely and utterly ridiculous that even when you do get a bounty, they’ll take a cut from it. Leave aside the fact that some stingy hands found a way to devalue a person’s contributions to their platforms by offering a tiny fraction as a reward.
I didn’t understand the later parts of this post well, but the correspondence frequency and the way this has been handled is a mark of shame to all the information security folks working at Apple.
P.S.: I intentionally put <our site> instead of the actual link. That site doesn’t deserve to be linked in this context.
- rmkrmk 5y ago> Once all steps are complete, we will reimburse you the cost of creating this account. Seems they'll refund the paid account, still a weird thing to do.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- camkego 5y agoThey are saying, in effect, you must sign/agree to our 81-page developer agreement to receive the reward.
- sneak 5y agoLots of bug bounties are really just hush money, that you have to sign an NDA to get. Always just publish your research. You can optionally offer it privately to the affected party in advance, but don't agree to any TOSes to do free work. Full disclosure is responsible, too.
- Leparamour 5y agoI assume lots of bug hunters (especially those from third world countries or those currently unemployed) depend on the bounty money to support their livelihoods.
- rapind 5y agoThis is why I think a third party bug bounty middleman service is inevitable. They will be better equipped to exact appropriate remuneration and develop relationships. Companies should be trying really hard to avoid this happening by offering better rewards with less hoops to jump through.
- belter 5y agoAgree. It is a business opportunity. It will have to be a US based company as only those will have enough funding to both fight the legal fights and lobby for legal protection. For the first few years the company will be considered a level just above common criminals. After a few while, they will be considered an essential consumer protection service.
- sombremesa 5y agoThat’s a bit like hitting the slots to support your family. Not only do you have slim chances to find anything that pays out a worthwhile sum, even if you do find such a bug they might come back with a “sorry, already reported”. If they get back to you, that is. It’s not something to rely on at all.
- underdeserver 5y agoYep, you should really give up significant income from companies that do responsible vulnerability disclosure in the name of a random HN's commenter's values.
- sneak 5y agoAt no point did I say you should give up income.
- underdeserver 5y ago"Always just publish your research." In most bug bounty programs I've seen (including Apple's and Facebook's) payouts are contingent on not publishing the research without consent.
- throwaway4400 5y agoAny corporate is going to make you sign something to receive the cash. The terms would not normally be as strong as an NDA though, otherwise we wouldn't see any bounty reports.
- josteink 5y ago> Once all steps are complete, we will reimburse you the cost of creating this account. That literally sounds like a Nigerian email scam.
- dolmen 5y agoIt is. But the subscription money is not the worst. You also have to agree to the terms of the developer account to open the account. Which means it will change the terms of your relationship with Apple before even getting any penny.
- drclau 5y agoMaybe it’s their way of validating the identity of the person making the claim.
- pdpi 5y agoThey have a mechanism to pay external developers, and they want to use that instead of creating a vulnerability-specific mechanism.
- intricatedetail 5y agoProfit (creatively shielded from tax) above all. (Rotten) Apple.
- revscat 5y agoWhat makes you believe Apple is unique in their avoidance in paying taxes?
- meowster 5y agoAre you defending Apple by using the Whataboutism fallacy?
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> Are you defending Apple by using the Whataboutism fallacy? Pointing out that Apple follows the law, like every other company, isn’t whataboutism. In any event, Apple pays its taxes in America. The manoeuvres are on its foreign income.
- effingwewt 5y agoyou literally just described whataboutism. 'apple follows the law like every other' you are saying 'but apple isnt the only one, whatabout' when the companies get to make the laws, they dont also then get to hide behind them as a shield.
- skygazer 5y agoI agree that distorting focus is often a propaganda tool and diversionary tactic, but it goes both ways. Sometimes the category of problem really is larger and more widespread than the single cited instance, and it’s necessary and reasonable to see the forest rather than just the tree, particularly when the best solution applies to the forest as a whole; e.g. to close the widely exploited loopholes.
- revscat 5y ago
- swiley 5y agoEverything about their platform is miserable. I'm so glad mobile Linux is starting to become usable and we finally have a real alternative.
- bnt 5y agoI see this comment every year, for 15+ years that I’m active in the community, and yet I don’t see the promised hoards of Linux fanboys rioting on the streets wanting to burn down Redmond and 1 Infinite Loop. Oh right, Linux on Desktop lost. Stop trying to make Linux on Desktop a thing.
- smoldesu 5y agoLinux on the desktop is fine. 80% of Windows software runs carte-blanche, and the native ecosystem kinda embarrasses Microsoft's attempts at making Windows feel like a cohesive experience. Of course, that's just my N+1 anecdata. I've been using Linux on my main PC for two years now without much issue, but ymmv.
- jeffe 5y agoas a windows user as my daily non-development driver unless that percentage hits 98%+ AND can maintain that I don't think many people are going to convert
- smoldesu 5y agoI was with you 3 years ago, but Microsoft pushed a major update that caused random BSODs on my motherboards chipset. I switched over to Linux full time and haven't looked back, though to my knowledge the BSOD issue is still prevalent in Lenovo's Haswell prebuilts.
- free652 5y agoI have tried using Linux for desktop and just sucks. I just need something that works and something that I need to chase a xyz problem after an each upgrade. I still chase these issues for server dist upgrades, but at least I don't have to do for my desktop. Dependency management utterly sucks in Linux. I can still run windows 98 binaries on win10.
- edgeform 5y ago> they’ll take a cut from it. Did you just stop reading the post at the line you quoted, and came straight here to moan? They refund it. It's how they verify your identity and banking information.
- rapind 5y agoDoubt it. This smells of lawyers. It’s how they get you to sign their agreement IMO.
- Justin_K 5y agoThey refund it at their choosing. It's a total joke. You shouldn't need to provide banking information to get compensation....
- JackGreyhat 5y agoI'm just wondering, what would you prefer to be the method? Isn't providing banking info the least they need? To send the money?
- dolmen 5y agoHe/She just want $18,000 in cash.
- JackGreyhat 5y agoOkay. That would not even be possible in most of the EU. That's why I wondered. Some EU countries have limits on the maximum amount of cash transactions that can happen legally. Mostly between 3000-10000 euros allowed, depending on the country.
- Justin_K 5y agoIssue a check? My whole point is you shouldn't have to pay money to "hopefully" receive money.
- dang 5y ago
- mariuolo 5y agoI wonder if this will push some people to sell exploits on the black market instead.