--- title: Apple Increases Bug Bounty Program to Combat Spyware Threats description: Apple significantly expanded its bug bounty program with rewards reaching $2 million for critical zero-click exploits, with potential total payouts exceeding... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/apple-increases-bug-bounty-program-to-combat-spyware-threats-dooweijy2 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Apple Increases Bug Bounty Program to Combat Spyware Threats | daily.dev og:description: Apple significantly expanded its bug bounty program with rewards reaching $2 million for critical zero-click exploits, with potential total payouts exceeding... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/apple-increases-bug-bounty-program-to-combat-spyware-threats-dooweijy2 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/DOoWEiJY2.png og:image:alt: Apple Increases Bug Bounty Program to Combat Spyware Threats og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Apple Increases Bug Bounty Program to Combat Spyware Threats **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Apple significantly expanded its bug bounty program with rewards reaching $2 million for critical zero-click exploits, with potential total payouts exceeding $5 million including bonuses. The program now covers wireless proximity exploits and WebKit sandbox escapes, having already paid $35 million to researchers. Apple also introduced Memory Integrity Enforcement in iPhone 17 models using ARM's Memory Tagging Extension to prevent memory corruption exploits, and is providing 1,000 free devices to civil society organizations protecting high-risk individuals from surveillance. ## Content Apple has made a substantial update to its bug bounty program, now offering rewards up to $2 million for critical zero-click exploit chains that mirror the capabilities of sophisticated spyware like Pegasus. With additional bonuses for bypassing Lockdown Mode and identifying vulnerabilities during beta testing, total payouts can surpass $5 million. This initiative is part of Apple's strategy to combat the escalating threat posed by mercenary spyware vendors targeting iOS devices. The bug bounty program now includes Target Flags to facilitate objective vulnerability demonstrations and has widened its scope to cover wireless proximity exploits and WebKit sandbox escapes. Substantial increases have been made across different categories, offering up to $1 million for unauthorized iCloud access and $100,000 for bypasses of Apple's Gatekeeper security mechanism. The company has already distributed $35 million to over 800 security researchers, with some individuals earning more than half a million dollars. In addition to the enhanced bug bounty program, Apple introduced a new security feature called Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) in the latest iPhone 17 models. This utilizes ARM's Memory Tagging Extension at the CPU level to prevent memory corruption exploits, protecting the entire kernel and more than 70 userland processes. This development aims to make creating such exploits significantly more challenging and cost-prohibitive. To further support the defense against spyware, Apple is allocating 1,000 free iPhone 17 devices to civil society organizations. These devices will be distributed to high-risk individuals who are particularly vulnerable to surveillance attacks, underscoring Apple's commitment to user privacy and security. --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#apple](https://daily.dev/tags/apple), [#ios](https://daily.dev/tags/ios), [#vulnerability](https://daily.dev/tags/vulnerability) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/apple-increases-bug-bounty-program-to-combat-spyware-threats-dooweijy2) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Apple Increases Bug Bounty Program to Combat Spyware Threats","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-increases-bug-bounty-program-to-combat-spyware-threats-dooweijy2","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-increases-bug-bounty-program-to-combat-spyware-threats-dooweijy2"},"datePublished":"2025-10-13T13:42:08.501Z","dateModified":"2025-10-15T11:08:09.847Z","description":"Apple significantly expanded its bug bounty program with rewards reaching $2 million for critical zero-click exploits, with potential total payouts exceeding...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Lfjeo8HzkvY/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Lfjeo8HzkvY/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-increases-bug-bounty-program-to-combat-spyware-threats-dooweijy2","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,apple,ios,vulnerability","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Apple Increases Bug Bounty Program to Combat Spyware Threats"}]} ```