Are they allowed to escalate access, given the bounty rules?
Also, isn't the periodic collection of login credentials completely out of scope? What I mean is: once the initial vulnerability was located and the pentester got shell access in the system, shouldn't he have stopped there and reported?
In this case, they (correctly) went the other way, which creates even more uncertainty. Given this pattern of inconsistent enforcement mixed with threats, I would feel genuinely unsafe reporting a security vulnerability to Facebook except under very specific conditions. That's probably not what they're going for, but that's the environment they're creating.
As Wes proved, a simple looking RCE can lead to a huge breach of security due to failures in other areas.
I agree that limits must be established, but also, these must not end research so abruptly as they can lead to further information.
One might argue this is unethical, but a black hat doesn't care either way.
It's already a critical vulnerability. Unless you want to assign numbers to the infinity, which is ridiculous.
That's why some get a 10k payout and others get a 2.5k.
I agree that some actions are u ethical, but does that really matter so much when a black hat is unethical anyways? The fact that he reported meant he was harbored no malicious intent.
How is collecting logins better than that? Seriously? This is completely malicious if you ask me.
Moreover, we must not judge each case strictly to the same rule, but with a measure of consideration of the circumstances as well.
What are we supposed to conclude from this? Under the current rules and assuming the description of what happened is accurate, it would seem you'll potentially be punished for establishing the full extent of a breach, unless it's not so bad, in which case you're rewarded for failing. In addition to being illogical and unfair, it also incentivizes OpSec to delude themselves and everyone else about their true security risks.
In the other case, they threatened because he proved the vuln was much much greater, infact I call it a billion dollar bug,and wanted to cover it up.
This time they're proudly telling us because the attempts failed or were not made at all.
No. From Facebook's responsible disclosure policy [1]:
> You do not exploit a security issue you discover for any reason. (This includes demonstrating additional risk, such as attempted compromise of sensitive company data or probing for additional issues.)
Both of the pen testers in this situation broke the rules. Once they found a security issue they exploited it and probed for additional issues (as well as one tester who attempted compromise of sensitive company data by collecting logins).
It's good that Facebook doesn't always apply these guidelines to the letter.