Submissions invalidated despite being duplicates of valid reports

[m-waqas88]

My submissions #308 and #311 were not added to finding repo despite being duplicate of below valid issues

#18
#46
#43

I think there is some issue in the system. Otherwise my findings are exact duplicate of the valid ones.

[m-waqas88]

@0xSorryNotSorry

[frankmullenger]

I've recently had some issues marked as "unsatisfactory" but without any information why it's difficult to continue competing in contests when I'm not sure what I need to change for future reports.

Here is an issue that I submitted: code-423n4/2024-04-dyad-findings#813
Here is a similar issue that was accepted: code-423n4/2024-04-dyad-findings#100

I guess my report is missing a "Description" but that section is not in the report submission template? I'm honestly not sure where my report fell short, any feedback appreciated.

[CloudEllie]

Two things in the works to try to address the concerns raised here:

1. Validators now perform a review of the validation repo after PJQA ends, and before awards are posted, to identify any duplicates of valid findings that may have been left behind in the validation repo. These submissions are then reviewed by the judge for validity and quality, and if found satisfactory are validated and included in awards.
2. While the volume of submissions in Code4rena competitions does not always allow sufficient time for validators and judges to provide individual feedback, we have new tooling in the works that should make it easier for wardens to view feedback on submissions (and for validators to provide it). This is still a work in progress but we will share updates in Discord when we have them.

[m-waqas88]

@CloudEllie Your response is appreciated. My concern is that my valid submissions of valid duplicates were left behind. What to do now for that?

There were also a lot of others that were left but because those wardens had backstage access they asked the concerned person to add them and those were added. But what about wardens like me who still don't have backstage access?

[CloudEllie]

@m-waqas88 I'm sorry to hear that that happened to you. Unfortunately we cannot reverse judging decisions after awards have been announced; this section of the C4 docs speaks to this.

The change to the validation process was made as soon as we were alerted to this concern, and we certainly hope and expect that it should prevent similar problems from happening in future.

[m-waqas88]

@CloudEllie thanks for your continuing response. I do respect the policies of C4. I won't ask to reverse the decision. I just want your team to at least add my valid submissions to my profile at least.

These finding are the very first valid findings of my career as a security researcher and unfortunately this happened.