Understanding the Psychology of Bug Bounty Triage Teams — Why Some Bugs Get Marked as Duplicates or “Informative” and How to Avoid It

Introduction

Bug bounty hunting can be a goldmine — or a frustrating dead end. You spend hours digging through an application, finally find a juicy security bug, submit it with excitement, and then get marked as duplicate or informative. No bounty, no recognition. Just disappointment.

If this has happened to you, you’re probably wondering: Why do triage teams do this? Are they biased? Are they lazy? Or are you missing something?

This article will deep dive into the psychology of triage teams, explore why some bugs are dismissed, and most importantly, show you how to avoid this fate and maximize your rewards.

1. How Triage Teams Think — Understanding Their Perspective

Triage teams are not your enemies. Their job is simple:

• Filter out low-quality reports
• Ensure bug uniqueness (no duplicate payouts)
• Prioritize high-impact vulnerabilities
• Minimize false positives

Imagine you’re a triager. You’re handling hundreds of reports every day. Many of them are invalid, outdated, or poorly explained. Would you take extra time to analyze a vague report? Probably not.

Key Takeaways:

• Triage teams prefer well-structured reports
• They have limited time, so clarity is king
• They rely on predefined criteria (not emotions) to reject bugs

2. Why Bugs Get Marked as “Duplicate” — The Hidden Reality

Scenario: You Found a Bug, But Someone Found It First

Let’s say you found an IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) in an API:

import requests
url = "https://target.com/api/orders/1234"
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer your_token"}
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(response.json())