Authorized testing only

Execution has
explicit boundaries.

Every workflow declares a safety tier. Scope, rate limits, the circuit breaker, and human approval rules are enforced around execution.

Safety Tiers

TierBehaviorGate
passiveRead-only discovery or local analysis. No target interaction.None
active-safeInteracts with target but remains read-only.None, but rate-limited
intrusivePayloads, fuzzing, WAF-triggering scans.Requires scope file. Without one, auto-caps to active-safe.
destructive-manualData modification, privilege changes.Never automated. Explicit human approval only.
Intrusive auto-cap: If you run bb-hunt without --scope-file, the harness caps you to active-safe, even if you asked for intrusive. This is enforced in code.

Scope Guardrails

  • Scope files (scope-manager skill) define what's in and out of scope. Every workflow validates scope before intrusive testing.
  • Circuit breaker kills a target after repeated consecutive failures, prevents hammering a WAF into a ban.
  • Rate limits from RunContext or per-workflow defaults. Every workflow respects them.

Evidence Standard

Scanner output is never a finding. A reportable issue needs:

ArtifactPath
Full request with headersevidence/<finding>/request.txt
Full response headers + bodyevidence/<finding>/response.txt
Screenshot or visual proofevidence/<finding>/screenshot.png
Reproduction scriptevidence/<finding>/poc.sh
Tool versions + timestampevidence manifest
Local-only. Evidence is gitignored. Nothing leaves your machine unless you submit the report. Run gitleaks detect --source . --no-git -v before committing anything that touched target data.

What This Is Not

Not a license to test random systems. BountyHarness is an orchestration framework for authorized research. Many workflows produce candidates that require human judgement, reproduction, and impact proof. Use it only on systems you own or are explicitly authorized to test.

Reporting Security Issues

Found a vulnerability in BountyHarness itself? See SECURITY.md on GitHub. Do not open a public issue for security reports.