Riot paying hackers $100,000 to find ways to cheat in Valorant

Olivia Richman Published 19/04/2020

Riot will be rewarding anyone who finds vulnerabilities in Valorant’s anti-cheat software, Vanguard.

For the past six years, the League of Legends developer has been running a Bug Bounty program on HackerOne, where they’ve paid out over $2 million in bounties to players who find bugs, glitches, and anything else that undermines the security and privacy of players. Payouts were awarded based on the severity of the breach, with a minimum reward of $250.

After doing this with League of Legends for years, Riot is now expanding the program to Valorant, which is currently in closed beta. The maximum payout is $100,000.

“We’d never let Riot ship something we couldn’t stand behind from a player-trust perspective. Players have every right to question and challenge us. But let’s be clear; we wouldn’t work here if we didn’t deeply care about player trust and privacy and believe that Riot feels the same way,” Riot’s security team stated.

Riot is offering bounties for the following:

Web security problems, like cross-site scripting
Game exploits, like third party game modifications
Security concerns
Bugs from outside Riot Game’s software, like the Player Support Portal

Individuals who exploit these types of vulnerabilities must meet a few requirements to be considered for the bounty. The exploit must work on the latest version of Vanguard and hackers must provide working proof of concept for the exploit that can be run by Riot Games. This should come with a detailed report. The exploit can’t already be shared elsewhere and the findings should not be disclosed outside of this program unless Riot Games gives approval.

“Riot’s committed to achieving the highest competitive integrity in our games. We want you to play in a world where you never have to doubt your abilities or your opponent’s. Vanguard is a solution that will help us achieve the vision of competitive integrity while enabling us to continuously adapt our arsenal in the war against cheaters,” Riot Games’ security team stated.

Riot has been taking security and competitive integrity very, very seriously in Valorant. While the game is still in closed beta, Riot is already prepared to ban entire computers if cheating is detected.

“Please keep holding us accountable for protecting both the competitive integrity of your games and your personal privacy,” they concluded.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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