Security Checklist for Student-Built Quantum Software: Lessons from Hytale's Bounty

Stop losing sleep over insecure student projects: a practical, classroom-friendly security checklist inspired by professional bug bounties

Students building quantum software face a unique set of security risks: messy integrations between classical and quantum code, accidental leakage of API keys to public repos, and fragile assumptions about simulated vs real QPU execution. Educators need a lightweight, repeatable responsible-disclosure workflow — one that borrows proven ideas from programs like Hytale's bounty but is tuned for classroom constraints. This guide delivers that checklist, code examples, and a responsible-disclosure workflow you can use in labs and projects in 2026.

Why Hytale's bug bounty matters to quantum education

In late 2025 Hytale publicly reinforced a simple fact: professional bug bounties sharply improve security posture by encouraging coordinated reporting and setting clear incentives. Hytale's program mixed strict scope definitions, structured report templates, and sizable rewards for high-severity issues. For classrooms, the lesson isn't the dollar amounts — it's the process: clear scope, reproducible proof-of-concept (PoC) requirements, and an explicit responsible-disclosure workflow timeline.

Key classroom takeaway: mimic the structure of professional bounties — triage rules, report templates, and acknowledgements — while removing the money variable. This reduces friction for students and teaches real-world security workflows.

2026 context: trends that change classroom threat models

• Quantum cloud providers expanded free-tier QPU epochs in 2025–2026, increasing student access to hardware — but also increasing risk of misconfigured credentials and cross-tenant data exposures. Modern site reliability practices and RBAC are useful context when managing institutional accounts.
• Quantum-safe and post-quantum cryptography policies matured in institutions; classrooms must consider hybrid crypto paths for datasets used in projects.
• Tooling improved: SCA tools now include OpenQASM and quantum SDK package scanning; CI integrations for quantum runtimes are common.
• More student-targeted capture-the-flag (CTF) and bug-hunting exercises emerged, creating an opportunity to teach ethical disclosure through practice.

Lightweight security checklist for student-built quantum software

This checklist is optimized for class projects (1–4 week sprints) and includes automated and manual checks you can enforce in lab rubrics or CI pipelines.

1. Threat modeling (15–30 minutes)

   • Identify the assets: QPU credentials, classical datasets, student PII, model parameters, experiment logs.
   • Actors: other students, external attackers, cloud tenants, misconfigured CI.
   • Entry points: web UI, API keys in code, exposed ports, shared notebooks.
   • Deliverable: 1-paragraph threat model included in project README.

2. Secrets and credentials management

   • Never hard-code API keys in notebooks or scripts. Use proven password hygiene practices and automated rotation where possible.
   • Use environment variables or project secret stores provided by the quantum cloud provider.
   • Automate secret scanning with pre-commit hooks and GitHub secret scanning enabled on repos.

3. Input validation and sanitization

   • Validate any user-supplied OpenQASM or OpenQASM circuits before passing to simulators or QPUs.
   • Use parser libraries and reject unexpected gate definitions; deny unsafe meta-commands in custom DSLs.

4. Dependency and supply-chain checks

   • Pin SDK versions (qiskit, cirq, pennylane) and scan for known CVEs using SCA tools in CI.
   • Use reproducible environment specs: lockfiles, containers, or reproducible notebooks.

5. Testing: unit, property, and fuzzing

   • Unit test classical wrappers and sanity-check circuits before QPU submission.
   • Property-based tests (Hypothesis) for randomized circuit generation; assert that runtime and result shapes are bounded.
   • Simple fuzzing to catch parser and simulator crashes on malformed OpenQASM input.

6. Resource and quota safety

   • Set runtime timeouts on QPU jobs; limit shot counts in student default configs.
   • Educate students on cloud costs and set budget alerts on institutional accounts.

7. Data privacy

   • Anonymize any collected student experiment data; avoid uploading PII to cloud experiments.
   • Document data retention in project README and delete logs after grading.

8. Secure CI/CD and repository hygiene

   • Require pull requests and code reviews; use branch protections and CI checks for lints and secret scans.
   • Fail builds on detected credentials or dangerous patterns (eval on untrusted strings, raw sockets in shared VMs). Tie into edge auditability and decision-plane policies where your institution supports them.

9. Documentation and reproducibility

   • Include a security section in the README: threat model, mitigation steps, and responsible-disclosure contacts.
   • Provide steps to reproduce experiments locally using a simulator to avoid repeated QPU submissions during testing.

Practical examples and small code snippets

Below are pragmatic code samples students can adopt to harden projects. Use these as part of starter templates.

1. Securely loading QPU credentials (Python)

import os
from qiskit import IBMQ

# Load from env or fail loudly
api_token = os.getenv('IBM_Q_API_TOKEN')
if not api_token:
    raise SystemExit('Missing IBM_Q_API_TOKEN. Set it in env or use a secrets manager.')

IBMQ.save_account(api_token, overwrite=False)

2. Simple OpenQASM sanitiser

def sanitize_qasm(qasm_text):
    # Very lightweight: only allow known gate names and basic structure
    allowed_keywords = {'OPENQASM', 'include', 'qreg', 'creg', 'measure', 'cx', 'u3', 'x', 'h'}
    tokens = {t.strip().upper() for t in qasm_text.replace('(', ' ').replace(')', ' ').split()}
    if not tokens & allowed_keywords:
        raise ValueError('QASM appears to contain disallowed tokens')
    return qasm_text

# Usage
# sanitize_qasm(user_submitted_qasm)

3. Minimal fuzz test for OpenQASM parser (pytest)

from hypothesis import given, strategies as st

@given(st.text(max_size=200))
def test_qasm_parser_does_not_crash(random_text):
    try:
        sanitize_qasm(random_text)
    except Exception:
        # Expected: reject malformed input without crashing interpreter
        pass

Classroom responsible-disclosure workflow (student-friendly)

Adopt a formal but gentle reporting workflow so students learn the professional process without intimidating legal language.

1. Report intake: single channel

   • Create a course-private channel (eg. private GitHub repo Issue template or a monitored course email) for vulnerability reports.
   • Require the reporter to mark reports 'private' until triage completes.

2. Basic report template students must follow

   Require structured fields to make triage fast and reproducible:

   • Title
   • Scope (project repo link)
   • Steps to reproduce (lowest friction)
   • PoC code or screenshot
   • Suggested severity (student estimate)
   • Contact email or handle

3. Triage in 72 hours

   • Assign a triager (instructor or TA). Confirm receipt and expected timeline within 24 hours.
   • Perform reproduction steps, attach logs, and decide on a mitigation or patch.

4. Severity rubric for grading and response

   • Critical: authentication bypass, API key leakage, or remote code execution. Immediate mitigation and full points for disclosure.
   • High: data leak of PII or high-cost cloud misuse. Patch and follow-up within 7 days.
   • Medium: denial-of-service or logic bug affecting correctness. Patch and acknowledgement.
   • Low: UI quirks, performance variances, or cosmetic issues (educational note: out of scope for bounty-style rewards).

5. Mitigation and acknowledgement

   • Request a PR from the reporter or allow the team to patch; credit in a public acknowledgements file if both parties agree.
   • Optionally, provide a small extra credit or a certificate for significant findings to encourage careful, ethical reporting.

6. Safe disclosure and learning

   • Coordinate an after-action review as a mini-lecture: discuss root cause, fixes applied, and best practices.
   • Use anonymised examples for class-wide learning and to build a security checklist library for future cohorts.

Teaching responsible disclosure is as valuable as teaching unit testing: it trains students to think like defenders and researchers.

Example GitHub issue template for reporting (copy-paste)

---
name: 'Security report'
about: 'Confidential vulnerability report for course project'
labels: 'security, triage'
---

**Project repo:** 

**Environment:** (simulator or provider and SDK versions)

**Steps to reproduce:**
1. 
2. 

**PoC:** (code or logs)

**Suggested severity:** (Critical/High/Medium/Low)

**Contact:** (email or preferred handle)

CI checklist: automations to enforce baseline security

1. Pre-commit hooks for formatters, linters, and secret scanning.
2. CI job to run unit tests and Hypothesis property tests on simulated backends only.
3. Dependency scan job for CVEs and outdated SDKs; fail builds on critical CVEs.
4. Automated sanity checks for QASM strings and circuit depth/width to avoid runaway QPU jobs.

Adapting the checklist to different course levels

• Intro courses: focus on secrets hygiene, simple sanitizers, and the reporting workflow.
• Intermediate: add fuzzing and SCA integration, plus threat modeling as a graded deliverable.
• Advanced: simulate coordinated red-team exercises, include post-quantum crypto considerations, and require CVE triage simulations.

2026 future predictions and advanced strategies

Expect a few developments in the next 12–24 months that should affect your classroom security plans:

• Quantum clouds will add cross-tenant telemetry and stronger identity policies; teach students to use role-based access controls (RBAC) by default.
• Supply-chain checks will include quantum language parsers and transpilers; SCA tools will flag risky transpilation plugins.
• Educational bug bounties will become formalised: universities may partner with providers to run safe, incentivised disclosure programs for students.

Actionable takeaways

• Adopt the checklist: include threat modeling and a README security section in every project rubric.
• Automate what you can: pre-commit secret scans and CI checks reduce instructor workload and catch common errors early.
• Teach reporting: require students to file at least one mock 'vulnerability report' as part of assessment to practice responsible disclosure.
• Use Hytale-style clarity: define in-scope and out-of-scope items for your courses to set expectations and encourage useful reports.

Final note: building a security-first quantum culture

Security is not an add-on. In 2026, as QPUs become mainstream in classrooms and more students experiment with cloud hardware, low-cost misconfigurations and privacy mistakes will become common learning opportunities. By borrowing the best practices of professional bug bounty programs — clear scope, reproducible PoCs, fast triage, and responsible disclosure — instructors can create a safe learning environment and instill real-world security skills.

Ready to ship a secure classroom project? Start by dropping this checklist into your next lab template, add the provided GitHub issue template to your course repo, and run one sprint where students must file a responsible-disclosure style report. You will teach secure development, incident triage, and ethical research — all essential skills for the next generation of quantum developers.

Call to action

Use the checklist: clone the starter repo, run the CI checklist, and add the disclosure template to your course materials this week. If you want a curated starter kit tailored to your syllabus, request the boxqubit classroom security kit — it includes templates, pre-commit hooks, and a reproducible VM for 2026 quantum labs. Email the team or open an issue in the course repo to get started.