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Upwork

Bug bounty on Bugcrowd upwork.com

Accepting reports
Top reward
$10,000
Top severity paid
Critical
Assets in scope
13
Public CVEs
1
Last change

At a glance

What to know before you start testing.

Pays up to $10,000
for critical bugs, from $120.
Publish after a fix
Coordinate the timing with the company.

Rewards

What Bugcrowd lists as the payout for each severity.

Severity Reward
Critical $5,000 from $2,000
High $2,000 from $1,000
Medium $720 from $480
Low $300 from $120
Earlier reward tables (1)
  • 11 Nov 2026 to 11 Nov 2026: Critical up to $5,000

Scope

13 assets you may test, 13 excluded.

Web 4

  • Direct Contracts
  • https://www.upwork.com
  • Upwork - Marketplace Portal
  • Upwork - Messages

APIs 3

  • api.upwork.com/graphql
  • Upwork - api.upwork.com/graphql
  • www.upwork.com/api

Android apps 2

  • Upwork - Android Application
  • Upwork - Mobile Application Android

Hardware and IoT 2

  • Upwork Dash Messenger Desktop Version (www.upwork.com/downloads)
  • www.upwork.com/downloads

iOS apps 2

  • Upwork - iOS Application
  • Upwork - Mobile Application IOS
Out of scope (13)
  • Any subdomain/domain/property not listed in the 'in scope' section, is out of scope.
  • Any Third-party Services
  • careers.upwork.com
  • community.stage.upwork.com
  • community.upwork.com
  • e.upwork.com
  • pardot.upwork.com
  • signature.upwork.com
  • Social media hijacking
  • stage.upwork.com
  • status.upwork.com
  • support.upwork.com
  • tip.upwork.com

Rules

What the policy asks of you, and the bug types it won't reward, quoted from Upwork (via Bugcrowd)'s policy.

While testing

  • User-Agent - To participate in the Upwork Bug Bounty, please configure your scanner to include bugcrowd in the user-agent string.
  • Access / Upwork Account - You can self-register for an Upwork account and Upwork API using your @bugcrowdninja.com email address.
  • Testing using any other account is out of scope.
  • When testing please only test against jobs that you have created - do not test against jobs owned by persons other than yourself
  • All attack payload data must use professional language (ex: "test" rather than "this has been hacked.")
  • If able to gain access to a system, accounts, users, or user data, stop at the recognition of and report. Do not dive deeper to determine how much more is accessible.
  • Do not proof-of-concept application-layer D/DoS attacks without prior consent

Not accepted

  • All CSRF vulnerabilities will likely be evaluated at the P4 level
  • Social Engineering
  • Uploading of any vulnerability or client-related content to third-party utilities (e.g., Github, DropBox)
  • Network-layer D/DoS
  • Vulnerabilities affecting users of outdated browsers, plugin, platforms, or operating systems.
  • 2FA exploits are of low value for this team and will be marked as Not Applicable
  • User Account Social Media Account (Twitter for example) hijacking via a broken link
  • Account/email enumeration using brute-force attacks
  • Any low impact issues related to session management (i.e., concurrent sessions, session expiration, password reset/change logout, etc.)
  • Bypassing content restrictions in uploading a file without proving the file was received
  • Clickjacking/UI redressing
  • Incomplete or missing SPF/DMARC/DKIM records
  • Issues related to password/credential strength, length, lockouts, or lack of brute-force/rate-limiting protections
  • Lack of SSL or Mixed content
  • Missing Cookie flags
  • Reflected file download attacks (RFD)
  • Self-exploitation (i.e., password reset links or cookie reuse)
  • URL Redirection
  • Use of a known-vulnerable library which leads to a low-impact vulnerability (i.e., outdated jQuery version leads to low impact XSS)
  • Vulnerabilities affecting users of outdated browsers, plugins or platforms
  • Vulnerabilities that allow for the injection of arbitrary text without allowing for hyperlinks, HTML, or JavaScript code to be injected
  • Vulnerabilities that require the user/victim to perform improbable actions (i.e., Self-XSS)
  • android:debuggable=" true" in Android Manifest
  • android:allowBackup set to true (by default)
  • Information disclosure via Toast messages

Summarised with AI from the program policy on Bugcrowd, and checked word for word against it. Read the original

Changes

Tracked since 11 Nov 2026. Last checked 24 seconds ago.

No changes yet. When the rewards or scope move, you will see it here and in the RSS feed.

Before we tracked it

Scope and reward changes recorded before this page started tracking it.

  1. Scope added

    Upwork - Messages

  2. Scope added

    Upwork - Marketplace Portal

  3. Scope added

    Direct Contracts

Public CVEs

Published vulnerabilities in this vendor's products, from the NVD.

Search NVD
CVESeverityPublished
CVE-2019-12162 High 7.8 23 Jul 2019

Original policy

Copied from bugcrowd.com on 12 Nov 2026. The summaries on this page are made from it; the live page may have changed since.

Description

Upwork For this program, we're inviting researchers to test our freelancer platform and mobile iOS/Android/Desktop apps. Our goal with this program is to ensure that our customers are using a secure platform that's free of security vulnerabilities. Please note: Upwork regularly releases new code, updates will be posted in the announcement section highlighting new code. This is a great opportunity for Upwork and the researcher community to work together to find vulnerabilities! Watch for new releases on Upwork's Blog . Special Bonuses and Rewards CTF Upwork is offering a an extra, one-time $5,000 reward for the ability to find reverse shell, bind shell, or meterpreter shell Researchers need to get reverse shell, bind shell, or meterpreter shell of any Upwork in-scope instance and provide a PoC. Please provide complete reproduction steps for how you were able to capture the flag Ongoing Momentum Bonus , the more you submit, the more you earn! There is a 7-day sliding window where you can build momentum on your rewards for the Upwork program, going forward, submissions made within the 7-day sliding window will be sorted by the severity assigned and the momentum bonus will be applied from highest to lowest severity, for example if you submit 3 bugs in this sequence [P3, P2, P1] within a 7 day sliding window, the submissions will be sorted by severity [P1, P2, P3] and the first (Bug with P1 Severity) pays 100%, the second (Bug with P2 Severity) pays 110%, the third (Bug with P3 Severity) pays 120%, etc. This scales to a maximum payout amount of 200% (double reward) the original value. Upwork is offering an extra, one-time $5,000 reward for the ability to break into any of the specified client or freelancer accounts and steal the funds allocated to it. The account is: [email protected] and [email protected] . Please provide complete reproduction steps for how you were able to capture the flag Bruteforcing credentials to break in is still out of scope as per the regular scoping rules. Use of Social Engineering to take-over the account is still out of scope as per the regular scoping rules. Disclosure terms This program has a coordinated disclosure policy. Disclosures requests will be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Targets

Any domain/property of Upwork not listed in the targets section is out of scope. This includes any/all subdomains not listed above. If you happen to identify a security vulnerability on a target that is not in-scope, but that demonstrably belongs to Upwork, it may be reported to this program, and is appreciated - but will ultimately be marked as 'not applicable' and will not be eligible for monetary or points-based compensation. Ratings/Rewards For the initial prioritization/rating of findings (with a few exceptions), this program will use the Bugcrowd Vulnerability Rating Taxonomy . However, it is essential to note that in some cases, a vulnerability priority will be modified due to its likelihood or impact. In any instance where an issue is downgraded, a full, detailed explanation will be provided to the researcher - along with the opportunity to appeal and make a case for a higher priority. Please see Target Information for exclusions specific to this program. Submissions Please ensure to differentiate which program you are reporting from. (i.e. Incremental vs. Original) Requirements The following requirements are needed to test - not abiding by these rules may result in you not being ineligible from receiving the full reward amount or may lead to being suspended from testing and/or removal from the program. User-Agent - To participate in the Upwork Bug Bounty, please configure your scanner to include bugcrowd in the user-agent string. Failure to do so may result in your IP being temporarily blocked from participation in the program. Access / Upwork Account - You can self-register for an Upwork account and Upwork API using your @bugcrowdninja.com email address. Testing using any other account is out of scope. Failure to use your @bugcrowdninja.com address may result in your account being temporarily locked or being suspended from participating in the program. Target information Please note that the mobile web app is available at: https://upwork.com/mobile Information on the public messaging API is available at: https://developer.upwork.com and also attached to the listing. To view a list of what will likely be the best areas to focus on to find valid and unique findings, please go here Android application, Clients Android application, Freelancers iOS applications Upwork Developers Worth noting, Upwork is designed to help people find jobs and posting/viewing resumes and other PII is a core component of the service. While you may submit findings, it must have a clear threat or business impact for Upwork; otherwise, it is likely to be marked as won't fix or informational. Upwork Bug Bounty Treasure Map Access/credentials Please sign up for an Upwork account and Upwork API using your @bugcrowdninja.com email address. Only basic/free access is provided by the Upwork team for this program, you are welcome to test the API using a paid account, but these are not offered at this time. Sign up for Upwork API How do I get started as a client? Getting Started as a Freelancer Upwork Bug Bounty Treasure Map When testing please only test against jobs that you have created - do not test against jobs owned by persons other than yourself Exclusions All CSRF vulnerabilities will likely be evaluated at the P4 level Social Engineering Uploading of any vulnerability or client-related content to third-party utilities (e.g., Github, DropBox) Network-layer D/DoS (If you suspect an application-layer D/DoS, contact Bugcrowd to review the vulnerability. Do not proof-of-concept application-layer D/DoS attacks without prior consent) All attack payload data must use professional language (ex: "test" rather than "this has been hacked.") If able to gain access to a system, accounts, users, or user data, stop at the recognition of and report. Do not dive deeper to determine how much more is accessible. Vulnerabilities affecting users of outdated browsers, plugin, platforms, or operating systems. Github Repos not associated with cloud.upwork.com or upwork.com. 2FA exploits are of low value for this team and will be marked as Not Applicable Additionally, the following vulnerabilities are considered too low of an impact and will be marked as Out of Scope if submitted Web User Account Social Media Account (Twitter for example) hijacking via a broken link Account/email enumeration using brute-force attacks Any low impact issues related to session management (i.e., concurrent sessions, session expiration, password reset/change logout, etc.) Bypassing content restrictions in uploading a file without proving the file was received Clickjacking/UI redressing Incomplete or missing SPF/DMARC/DKIM records Issues related to password/credential strength, length, lockouts, or lack of brute-force/rate-limiting protections Lack of SSL or Mixed content Missing Cookie flags Reflected file download attacks (RFD) Self-exploitation (i.e., password reset links or cookie reuse) URL Redirection Use of a known-vulnerable library which leads to a low-impact vulnerability (i.e., outdated jQuery version leads to low impact XSS) Vulnerabilities affecting users of outdated browsers, plugins or platforms Vulnerabilities that allow for the injection of arbitrary text without allowing for hyperlinks, HTML, or JavaScript code to be injected Vulnerabilities that require the user/victim to perform improbable actions (i.e., Self-XSS) Android android:debuggable=" true" in Android Manifest android:allowBackup set to true (by default) Information disclosure via Toast messages iOS Information leakage in backgrounding snapshots Information leakage in keystroke caching Both Copy & Paste disabled for sensitive fields Pasteboard data cached The application asks for more permission than its needs Two-factor authentication bypass that requires physical access to a logged-in device Any issue in the mobile app that can only be exploited on a rooted or jailbroken device Any issue exploited in the mobile app because of an operating system vulnerability Local access to user data when operating a rooted mobile device This list will be updated if we see a particular vuln that is systemic and sitewide. Please check this list often. This is for your benefit and to save you the trouble of searching the analytics Privacy Considerations are OOS Upwork is Privacy Shield certified. Upwork has received TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that our privacy policy and practices comply with the TRUSTe program requirements, including transparency, accountability, and choice regarding the collection and use of personal information. Upwork is GDPR compliant.

In scope (in scope)

Focus Area: Recently migrated from Angular to Vue.js and findings related to this change are of great interest to the Upwork team

Non-Circumvention Controls Targets (in scope)

Scope Description For this scope, we're inviting researchers to test our existing User Agreement Non-Circumvention Controls on our Marketplace and mobile iOS/Android/Desktop apps, as well as help us to discover unknown loopholes that can be exploited to gain directs access or share contact information. Our goal is to ensure that our clients and freelancers are using our platform in compliance with User Agreement Section 7 specifically. Special Bonuses and Rewards Ongoing and until we reward $10000 total for all submissions reported under this sub-program. We may extend this program in the future based on results. Momentum Bonus , the more you submit, the more you earn! There is a 7-day sliding window where you can build momentum on your rewards for this program, going forward, submissions made within the 7-day sliding window will be sorted by the severity assigned and the momentum bonus will be applied from highest to lowest severity, for example if you submit 3 bugs in this sequence [P3, P2, P1] within a 7 day sliding window, the submissions will be sorted by severity [P1, P2, P3] and the first (Bug with P1 Severity) pays 100%, the second (Bug with P2 Severity) pays 110%, the third (Bug with P3 Severity) pays 120%, etc. This scales to a maximum payout amount of 200% (double reward) the original value. Disclosure Terms This program has a coordinated disclosure policy. Disclosure requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Out of Scope (out of scope)

All already known loopholes and planned remediation will not be rewarded. Brute Forcing credentials to break into accounts is outside of scope. The use of Social Engineering is out of scope. Soliciting circumvention as a means of root cause identification. Finding direct contact information through externally posted sources by either client or freelancer is out of scope unless this information is clearly linked from within the Upwork Marketplace and was not known to Upwork trust and safety teams already.