Vulnerability disclosure program (VDP)
A public policy that tells security researchers how to report a flaw, what is in scope and that they will not be sued for reporting in good faith.
A VDP names a contact, the systems in scope, what testing is off-limits, response times and a safe harbor clause. A bug bounty adds payment per valid finding; a Hall of Fame credits researchers publicly instead. security.txt points to the policy. The Cyber Resilience Act expects manufacturers to have a way to receive vulnerability reports, so a VDP is becoming a baseline.
Related terms
- security.txt: A small file at /.well-known/security.txt that tells security researchers how to report a vulnerability to you.
- CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures): A public catalog that gives each known security vulnerability one ID, such as CVE-2025-55182, so everyone talks about the same bug.
- Penetration test (pentest): An authorized, time-boxed attack on your app by security testers, ending in a report of what they could break and how badly.
