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Cantina Bug Bounty Status Confusing? How to Check and Dispute a Finding

A confusing Cantina status is not resolved by a support ticket alone. Learn what the labels mean, how to dispute a decision, and what the public account leaves unknown.
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If a Cantina finding suddenly shows Duplicate, a changed severity, or another unexpected status, check the report’s history and use the platform’s Dispute control if it is available. Cantina’s guidance says a support ticket alone does not start bounty mediation. The specific decision described in a Reddit post cannot be judged from that account alone; the report history, program rules, and triager’s reasoning are not available.

What Cantina’s finding statuses mean

Cantina’s status labels describe where a finding is in the review process or how it was resolved. Its status guidance defines them as follows:

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Status Meaning
New Submitted and awaiting initial triage.
In Review Triaged and being evaluated by the client.
Confirmed Considered a valid finding. A payout amount may be disclosed later.
Rejected Considered invalid or outside the program’s criteria.
Duplicate Considered the same underlying issue as a finding reported by another researcher. Cantina says duplicate findings are not rewarded on bug bounties.
Spam Considered irrelevant, low-quality, automated, AI-generated, or otherwise non-actionable.
Withdrawn Withdrawn by the researcher.
Disputed A decision has been challenged and is awaiting mediation.

What a Duplicate decision is supposed to mean

Cantina describes a duplicate as more than a similar title, symptom, or outcome. Its guidance centers on whether reports share the same underlying root cause, a realistic attack path, and the resulting impact. A useful dispute therefore explains the technical relationship—or the meaningful difference—between the findings, rather than relying only on a different report title or severity label.

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The status definitions alone do not explain whether a finding can properly be marked duplicate of a report that was previously rejected, or why severity might change. Those questions depend on the specific report histories and program context; the published definitions do not resolve the case described in the Reddit post.

How to dispute a finding on Cantina

  1. Open the relevant finding on the Cantina platform and review its status and report discussion. Keep the report history, evidence, and any related correspondence together.
  2. If the finding has a Dispute button and you have a technical basis to challenge the decision, use that control. Cantina says only a finding in Disputed status is eligible for bounty mediation.
  3. Make the argument concise and evidence-based. Address the root cause, realistic attack path, and impact, and explain exactly where the decision does not match the evidence or the bounty’s criteria.
  4. Check the finding for a response or status change. If the dispute has had no movement for more than 15 days, Cantina’s dispute guidance says to contact support again.

If the Dispute button is missing

Cantina says that when the Dispute control is unavailable, its platform-side review cycle is complete. That tells you the control is no longer available; it does not, by itself, explain the decision or settle a disagreement about the program’s facts. Preserve the report history and any relevant discussion so you can accurately describe the situation if you contact support.

What support can—and cannot—do

Use the finding’s dispute workflow to challenge a bounty decision. Cantina’s guidance is explicit: “A support ticket does not start mediation.” A ticket is for account or platform support, not for submitting a vulnerability finding or starting a dispute. Findings must be submitted through the relevant bounty or competition page, according to Cantina’s ticket guidance.

Before opening a ticket, Cantina recommends checking the platform, its Docs, and its knowledge base. If you already have a support ticket, follow up through its email thread so the conversation stays with the existing request. For a finding that remains disputed without movement beyond 15 days, its dispute instructions identify contacting support again as an appropriate next step.

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How to interpret the reported Cantina situation

A Reddit post matching the title says its author submitted a high-severity report, later supplied requested information, offered to lower the severity, and then saw the report marked Duplicate of a finding they understood to have been Rejected, with severity changed to Critical. The author also says six business days had passed without a support response. These are the poster’s claims, not independently verified facts.

The post does not provide report identifiers, the full history of the allegedly duplicated finding, the bounty rules, the triager’s explanation, or the support email thread. Without those details, it is not possible to determine whether the duplicate decision or severity change was correct. The practical next step is to rely on the finding’s status history and discussion, and use the in-platform dispute process if it remains available.

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Confirmed findings and payout timing

A Confirmed status means Cantina considers a finding valid, but it does not necessarily mean the payout amount is already visible or payment is ready. Cantina’s payment FAQ says a confirmed bounty finding may be awaiting sponsor or client readiness. When KYC and wallet setup are ready, Cantina recommends waiting one weekly payout cycle before contacting support about payment.

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