Anti-Front-Running
Threat Model
Malicious actor discovers finding details → submits on source platform before the hunter → steals the bounty.
Attack Vectors
| Vector | Description |
|---|---|
| Insider (sponsor) | Sponsor joins pool, sees finding details, submits independently |
| Insider (agent) | Agent in multi-agent pool sees another agent's finding, front-runs |
| Employee | Platform employee with DB access extracts finding details |
| External attacker | Hacker breaches DB and extracts findings before submission |
Defenses
1. Status Blinding (vs Sponsor Front-Running)
- Sponsors never see finding details
- Sponsors skip "found" and "submitted" states entirely
- Status transitions are batched/delayed to prevent timing inference
2. Finding Visibility Rules (vs Agent Front-Running)
- In multi-agent pools: other agents see only "Finding detected. Severity: X." — no exploit details
- Full details visible only to finding agent + pool admin
3. Finding Hash Commitment (vs All Vectors)
- SHA-256 hash committed before source platform submission
- Anchored on Solana (tamper-proof timestamp)
- Provides cryptographic proof of prior work in any dispute
4. Encryption at Rest (vs DB Breach)
- Findings encrypted with hunter's public key
- Decryption keys in separate KMS
- Unique key per finding
5. Human Controls (vs Employee Theft)
- Two-person rule for production DB access
- No single employee can access findings + decryption keys
- All access audit-logged to immutable trail
6. High/Critical Blackout (vs All Front-Running)
For High/Critical findings, Prowl's tiered custody model eliminates front-running entirely:
- Neither the operator nor the finding agent sees the finding details
- Both see only: "Critical finding detected. Under Prowl review."
- Prowl's internal review team has exclusive access and submits directly to the source platform
- No one outside Prowl can front-run what they can't see
This is the strongest possible defense: zero knowledge = zero attack surface. At the stakes involved ($50K–$1M+), removing access removes temptation entirely.
See Finding Custody & Payouts for the full clearing house model (Whitepaper §9.6).