Hacking Google’s Chrome browser can pay, and Google is eager to foot the bill. As part of an annual hacking contest, the company is offering a special reward of $20,000 and a Google Chrome Cr-48 notebook for a successful break-in.
The rules are straightforward. The hack will have to be accomplished on a Chrome web browser on the most recent, 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Mac OS X. A “sandbox escape,” which will combine the Chrome flaw with another one to affect the computer’s system, must be included. According to the rules, the contestant must “pop the browser and escape the sandbox using vulnerabilities purely present in Google-written code.” Plug-ins, other than PDF, cannot be used.
$125,00 in Cash Prizes
The PWN2OWN contest will run from March 9 to 11 and will be featured in the CanSecWest Applied Security conference in Vancouver. The full Google prize is only available on the first day of the conference, and each contestant will have 30 minutes. If the hack takes place on later days, the price is $10,000 from the contest sponsor for a non-Google code sandbox escape, and $10,000 from Google for a Chrome-specific bug.
There are also challenges at the conference to hack Apple’s Safari, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox browsers, also running on either 64-bit Windows 7 or Mac OS X. The PWN2OWN contest is organized by The HP TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative, a program for “rewarding security researchers for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities.”
The Zero Day Initiative purchases all the winning vulnerabilities, hands them over to the vendors affected, and publicly discloses the information.
PWN2OWN is now entering its fifth year, and there are cash prizes and bounties in the non-Chrome competitions. Successful IE, Safari or Firefox hacks are rewarded with a $15,000 prize plus a laptop and ZDI reward points for…