If you’re still wondering why legitimate companies sponsor hackfests and hacking contests especially on their own products, this is because it is one of the fastest ways to discover deep seated vulnerabilities and hacker entry points to a secure system. Now Android is far from being secure, but it has made steps in the right direction especially with Android Marshmallow and recently Nougat, and with the monthly security bulletin that Google puts out. Here’s another step towards that, a new hacking contest by Google called “The Project Zero Prize”.
The Project Zero Prize contest is aiming to seek out remote execution vulnerabilities in Android. Hackers will need to “find a vulnerability or bug chain that achieves remote code execution on multiple Android devices knowing only the devices’ phone number and email address.” With that, we know that Google is gunning to plug vulnerabilities before malicious hackers get a hold of them.
Those who want to join the contest will need to report the bugs they find in the Android Issue Tracker, and they can use the bugs they find when a bug chain is completed and the vulnerability is completely exposed. Only the first person to file a bug will be able to use it as part of their chain, so we guess it’s “file early, file often” for you guys who want to join.
The prizes are such: USD$200,000 for the first prize, USD$100,000 for the second prize, and at least USD$50,000 for the third prize. Check out the source link below for more details.
SOURCE: Google
