Case Study:
Bugbop - Dogfooding Our Own Platform

5 min read Case Study

A silver pet food can labeled BUGBOP Bug Bounty Breakfast. The label reads “Kernel-level critter chunks for adult dogs – Real insect protein – Exploit-free & optimized!” and “Real critical findings inside!” with small icons of a paw print, bug, magnifying glass, and leaf. The design humorously blends cybersecurity and dog food branding.

Dogfooding means using your own product. The term comes from the phrase "eating your own dog food" because if you really make great dog food, you should be willing to eat it yourself.

Client: Bugbop

Industry: Security SaaS

Platform: Web Application

Site: bugbop.com

Program Type: Cash Bug Bounty

Bounties Paid: $1,750

Overview

The first program launched on Bugbop was Bugbop itself! Before asking customers to trust our platform, we wanted to trust it ourselves. By using our own app, we've experienced first-hand the submission flow, triage, duplicate handling, severity scoring, and payouts just like our users.

Bug bounty programs are a mature security practice. Most companies wait until they have significant scale before launching one. We took the opposite approach and made it our first security investment. This turned out to be incredibly valuable and we believe more companies should consider launching bug bounty programs early in their development cycle.

7 Months

Program Duration

Total Reports

Security Bugs Fixed

$1,750

Bounties Paid

The Challenge

Our goals were to:

Primarily, uncover any vulnerabilities in the app
Prove Bugbop's end-to-end workflow in production
Polish the app based on first-hand experience as a real user
Maintain a lightweight process for handling bugs

Bugbop Solution

We ran our own public program using the exact features customers use:

Public program to allow bug hunters to review scope, test, and submit bugs
Template for program scope
Suggested bug bounty ranges ($0 - $500) based on budget and engagement target
AI-assisted triage to determine severity and if bugs are in scope
Communication with bug hunters via notifications and the UI

7-Month Results

Severity	Count	Description
Critical	0	No critical vulnerabilities found
High	5	Access controls and stored XSS due to misconfiguration
Medium	6	Various security configuration and validation issues
Low	6	Minor security improvements and information disclosure

All valid issues were triaged within SLA and fixes deployed immediately. The continuous feedback helped us identify security bugs as soon as they were deployed. In some cases a feature was deployed, bug hunters tested it and raised a bug report, then we triaged and fixed - all within the same day!

"The report description was done in a weird way and now it's built the same way as programs and comments. Please retest :-)"

John Sherwood, Founder, Bugbop

Value Delivered

17 verified vulnerabilities remediated
Continuous coverage with same-day testing
Saved time with real-time AI triage to determine severity and reject out-of-scope bugs
Excellent value with an average of $102 per bug

Why This Matters

Proof that Bugbop’s workflows hold up under real submissions
Evidence of measurable risk reduction without heavy process
A simple path for SaaS teams to add continuous security feedback

Want to see our live program?

Explore the actual bug bounty program we ran on ourselves, including resolved findings and workflow.

View Bugbop’s Live Program

Ready to enhance your security with Bugbop?

Run a bounty the way we did: focused scope, budget guardrails, and automated triage and payouts.

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Case Study: Bugbop - Dogfooding Our Own Platform