{"id":4629,"date":"2014-01-29T12:30:34","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T17:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=4629"},"modified":"2014-01-29T12:30:34","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T17:30:34","slug":"google-bets-2-7-million-in-chrome-hacking-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/01\/29\/google-bets-2-7-million-in-chrome-hacking-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Google bets $2.7 million in Chrome hacking contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2091046\/google-bets-2-7-million-in-chrome-hacking-contest.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1107-thumb-chrome-100066234-large.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Google says it will again host its Pwnium hacking contest at a Canadian security conference in March, putting $2.7 million at stake to draw researchers who can hack its browser-based operating system, Chrome OS.<\/p>\n<p>Dubbed Pwnium 4, the challenge will again pit researchers against Chrome OS, but this year will let them choose between Intel- or ARM-powered laptops. In 2013, hackers had to try to crack a Chromebook with an Intel processor.<\/p>\n<p>Prizes of $110,000 and $150,000 will again be rewarded to individuals or teams who can hack the operating system, with the top dollar handed to those who deliver an exploit able to persistently compromise a Hewlett-Packard or Acer Chromebook\u2014in other words, hijack the device so that it remains under their control even after a reboot.<\/p>\n<p>Google capped the total up for grabs at $2.71828 million, giving multiple researchers a chance at prize money. The \u201c2.71828\u201d comes from a mathematical constant that is the base of the natural logarithm.<\/p>\n<p>Mixed results last year<\/p>\n<p>Last year Google put $3.14159 million in the pot\u2014another nod to mathematics, as those are the first six digits of the value of Pi\u2014but paid out just $40,000 to a prolific hacker who goes by \u201cPinkie Pie,\u201d the contest\u2019s sole participant, for what Google later called a partial exploit.<\/p>\n<p>Google also said it would consider larger bonuses this year to researchers who demonstrated what it called a \u201cparticularly impressive or surprising exploit,\u201d such as one that could circumvent kASLR, (kernel Address Space Layout Randomization), a relatively new variant of the better-known ASLR anti-exploit technology used by Apple\u2019s iOS and OS X, Microsoft\u2019s Windows 8 and Chrome OS.<\/p>\n<p>Even with bonuses in play, it\u2019s unlikely that Google will end up spending anywhere close to $2.7 million this year.<\/p>\n<p>To qualify for the prizes or bonuses, winners must provide functional exploit code and details on all the vulnerabilities put into play, as was the case last year.<\/p>\n<p>Pwnium 4 will take place March 12 at CanSecWest, the Vancouver, British Columbia security conference known for another hacking contest, Pwn2Own, which last year was co-sponsored by HP\u2019s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) bug bounty program and Google. HP has not yet announced the details of its 2014 challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The official rules for Pwnium 4 can be found on Google\u2019s Chromium Security page.<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2091046\/google-bets-2-7-million-in-chrome-hacking-contest.html\" target=\"_blank\">Google bets $2.7 million in Chrome hacking contest | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google says it will again host its Pwnium hacking contest at a Canadian security conference in March, putting $2.7 million [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[190,455],"class_list":["post-4629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-software","tag-chrome","tag-hacking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-1cF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9297,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/02\/11\/this-week-in-tech-653-x-stands-for-nothing\/","url_meta":{"origin":4629,"position":0},"title":"This Week in Tech 653: X Stands for Nothing","author":"NCCT","date":"February 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/9vdjtG9ozeQ HomePod should have been delayed longer. 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