> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developer.litprotocol.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bug Bounty Program

> How to report security vulnerabilities in Lit Chipotle, what is in and out of scope, the rules of engagement, and how rewards work.

We pay rewards for security vulnerabilities responsibly disclosed to us. If you
find a way to break the security model described in this section — extract keys,
forge attestation, bypass the permission model, escape the Lit Actions sandbox —
we want to hear about it, and we will pay you for it.

## How to report

Email **[security@litprotocol.com](mailto:security@litprotocol.com)**.

**Please do not open a public GitHub issue for security vulnerabilities.** If you
prefer, you may instead open a
[private security advisory](https://github.com/LIT-Protocol/chipotle/security/advisories/new)
on the repository.

Include in your report:

* A description of the issue and its potential impact.
* Steps to reproduce, or a proof of concept.
* The component affected (API server, Lit Actions runtime, contracts,
  deployment/CI, governance, attestation/verification flow).
* Any relevant version, commit hash, compose hash, or deployment URL.

You can expect an **acknowledgement within 3 business days** and a **triage and
severity assessment within 7 business days**.

## Rewards

Rewards are paid for valid, previously unknown vulnerabilities, sized by severity
and real-world impact. Issues that compromise keys, funds, user data, or the
attestation and governance guarantees earn the largest rewards; lower-impact
issues earn proportionally smaller ones. We determine severity using
[CVSS](https://www.first.org/cvss/) as a starting point, adjusted for actual
exploitability and impact on the deployed system.

* Only the **first reporter** of a given issue is eligible for a reward.
* Duplicates of issues we already know about (internally or from another
  reporter) are not eligible, but we will tell you it was a duplicate.
* A working proof of concept meaningfully increases the reward for the same
  finding.
* Rewards are at our discretion and require that you followed the
  [rules of engagement](#rules-of-engagement) below.

## In scope

* The `lit-api-server`, `lit-actions` runtime, and `lit-static` dashboard.
* Smart contracts in this repository (account/permission model, and the
  attestation-governance contracts on Base).
* The deployment pipeline and TEE attestation / verification flow.
* The on-chain governance and key-release model.

Before reporting an issue that depends on "what code is running," verify the live
state yourself — see [Verify in 30 Seconds](/architecture/verification/quick-verify).

## Out of scope

The following are **not** eligible for rewards:

* **Insider attacks.** Attacks that require a malicious Lit employee, a
  compromised governance signer, or any other privileged insider as a
  precondition. The threat model for insiders is addressed by
  [attestation](/architecture/verification/attestation) and
  [upgrade governance](/architecture/verification/upgrade-governance), not by
  the bounty program.
* **The marketing website** (litprotocol.com and other brochure/marketing
  properties), the blog, and documentation sites. These hold no keys and no user
  data.
* **Vulnerabilities in the underlying platform** — Intel TDX, the dstack OS, or
  Phala Cloud infrastructure. Report these upstream to
  [Intel](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/default.html),
  [dstack](https://github.com/Dstack-TEE/dstack), or
  [Phala](https://docs.phala.com/) respectively — but do tell us if they affect
  our deployment.
* **Third-party dependencies.** Report upstream; we track advisories via
  `deny.toml`. A concrete, exploitable impact on our deployment of a dependency
  vulnerability *is* in scope.
* **Denial of service** of any kind — volumetric attacks, resource exhaustion,
  rate-limit exhaustion — and any report whose proof requires degrading the
  service for real users.
* **Social engineering and phishing** of Lit employees, contractors, or users.
* **Physical attacks** on data centers, offices, or hardware, including physical
  side-channel attacks against the TEE hardware itself.
* **Best-practice reports without a demonstrated vulnerability**: missing
  security headers, SPF/DKIM/DMARC configuration, TLS cipher-suite preferences,
  clickjacking on pages with no sensitive actions, verbose error messages or
  stack traces without security impact, and output from automated scanners with
  no accompanying analysis.
* **Self-inflicted issues**: self-XSS, attacks requiring a victim's rooted or
  malware-compromised device, or issues requiring the victim to paste attacker
  code into their own console.
* **Leaked or compromised user credentials and API keys** obtained outside our
  systems (credential stuffing, keys committed to third-party repos, etc.).
* **Known issues** already tracked publicly in this repository's issues,
  advisories, or changelog.

If you are unsure whether something is in scope, email us and ask before you
start testing.

## Rules of engagement

To be eligible for a reward, you must:

* **Test only against your own accounts and data.** Never access, modify, or
  delete another user's data or keys. If a vulnerability exposes someone else's
  data, stop immediately, capture the minimum evidence needed to demonstrate the
  issue, and report it.
* **Not degrade the service.** No DoS, no high-volume automated scanning, no
  spamming endpoints. Keep testing traffic modest.
* **Not pivot.** If you gain unexpected access, demonstrate the issue and stop —
  do not use it to move laterally, persist, or explore further.
* **Not publicly disclose** the issue before we have released a fix and agreed
  on a disclosure timeline with you. We work in good faith on coordinated
  disclosure and will credit you (if you wish) when the fix ships.
* **Not extort.** Reports conditioned on payment before details are shared are
  not eligible.
* **Use mainnet funds and production accounts at your own risk.** Where a
  vulnerability can be demonstrated against a local deployment (see
  [Self-Hosting](/architecture/self-hosting)) or with trivial value at stake,
  prefer that.

## Safe harbor

We will not pursue legal action against researchers who make a good-faith effort
to follow these rules, stay within scope, and report promptly. This safe harbor
does not extend to actions that intentionally harm users, destroy data, or
violate the rules above.
