Google Announces New Rating System for Android and Device Vulnerability Reports

Google on Wednesday announced that it’s updating the Android and Google Devices Vulnerability Reward Program (VRP) with a new system for rating the quality of bug reports.

The new quality rating system, the internet giant says, should encourage researchers to provide more details on the identified security defects and should also help address them faster.

Per the new rating system, received vulnerability reports will be rated as ‘high’, ‘medium’, or ‘low’ quality, and will be awarded bounty rewards accordingly.

“The highest quality and most critical vulnerabilities are now eligible for larger rewards of up to $15,000,” the internet giant says.

Google expects researchers to describe the identified flaw clearly and accurately and to include in their reports the device name and version, a full root cause analysis of the bug, a high-quality proof-of-concept (PoC) demonstrating the issue, and a step-by-step explanation of how to reproduce it.

Additionally, the internet giant expects researchers to provide evidence or an analysis demonstrating the level of access or execution that can be achieved by exploiting the vulnerability.

Google also says that it’s no longer assigning CVEs for most Android vulnerabilities that are assigned ‘moderate’ severity ratings. 

The Android and Google Devices VRP currently covers Pixel 4a to Pixel 7 Pro phones, Google Nest devices (cameras, doorbells, speakers, displays, thermostats, Wi-Fi, streaming, alarms, and door locks), and Fitbit wearables (Versa 3, Sense, Luxe, Inspire 2, and Charge 5).

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