Google froze its open source bug bounty program due to a ‘significant rise’ in AI submissions

Google paused its Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program as of October 1, citing a "significant rise in automated submissions, the vast majority of which are not valid," with an update promised in the first quarter of 2027. Google engineers and open source maintainers were overwhelmed by invalid or hallucinated AI-generated bug reports, according to Tom's Hardware. Participants were directed to Google's other bug bounty programs while the open source program remains suspended.

Blaming a “significant rise” in AI submissions, Google has paused its open source bug bounty program until next year. Last year, TechCrunch reported that cybersecurity experts were warning of that AI slop posed a serious risk to bug bounty programs https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/24/ai-slop-and-fake-reports-are-exhausting-some-security-bug-bounties/ . Looks like that’s the issue confronting Google’s Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program, where researchers were rewarded for finding vulnerabilities in the company’s open source software. In posts on X https://x.com/GoogleVRP/status/2105689195180179605 and the program website https://bughunters.google.com/about/rules/open-source/google-open-source-software-vulnerability-reward-program-rules reward-amounts , Google said the bug bounty program was paused as of October 1, with a promise to provide “an update” in the first quarter of 2027. According to Tom’s Hardware https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/google-suspends-part-of-the-oss-vrp-bug-bounty-program-due-to-an-influx-of-invalid-ai-submissions-product-vulnerability-submissions-ended-october-1 , Google engineers and open source maintainers were overwhelmed by reports that were invalid or contained hallucinations. “This pause is due to a significant rise in automated submissions, the vast majority of which are not valid,” the company said. In the meantime, participants are encouraged to consider Google’s other bug bounty programs.