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Having been on the reporting side, "an exploitable vulnerability" and "security weakness which could eventually result in an exploitable vulnerability" are two very different things. Bounties always get paid for the first category. Reports falling in the second category might even cause reputation/signal damage for a lack of proof of concept/exploitability.

There are almost always various weaknesses which do not become exploitable until and unless certain conditions are met. This also becomes evident in contests like Pwn2Own where multiple vulnerabilities are often chained to eventually take the device over and remain un-patched for years. Researchers often sit on such weaknesses for a long time to eventually maximize the impact.

Sad but that is how it is.



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