Google puts hackers to the test

Aspiring hackers could grab a share of $2 million-worth of prizes for taking on Google’s web browsers

Jeremy Proome

August 17, 2012

Google is offering hackers $2 million-worth of prizes for anyone who hacks its Chrome and Chromium browsers.

The competition, called Pwnium 2, and will take place in October at the Hack in The Box, a security conference in Malaysia.

Hackers who perform a full Chrome hack will be awarded $60,000.

A smaller $50,000 prize is up for grabs for a hackers who manage a “partial Chrome exploit”, which would be a hack combining a Chrome bug, and another element, such as Windows.

A “non-Chrome exploit” in Adobe Flash, Windows or other app will fetch $40,000.

“You may have noticed that we’ve compressed the reward levels closer together for Pwnium 2,” Google software engineer Chris Evans wrote in a blog post.

“This is in response to feedback, and reflects that any local account compromise is very serious. We’re happy to make the web safer by any means—even rewarding vulnerabilities outside of our immediate control.”