Google offering cash prizes to hackers who can exploit Chrome

Think you can exploit Google’s Chrome browser? If you think you can it might be worth your while to attend the CanSecWest security conference next week and prove it. Google is giving away prizes totaling $1 million to those who can successfully hack their browser.

Google’s security team announced the contest, called Pwnium, on their blog on Monday. There are three prize brackets to be awarded $20,000, $40,000, and $60,000 per exploit depending on the severity of the exploit that can be demonstrated. People wishing to give this a whirl must do so on a Windows 7 machine running the Chrome browser. You won’t be able to split winnings and the prizes will be on a first come first serve basis until the total amount of $1 million is reached.

There is a similar contest that is now running in its sixth year at the CanSecWest security conference called Pwn2Own, which also awards people cash if they can remotely take control of computers by exploiting vulnerabilities found in fully patched browsers. Last year both Internet Explorer and Safari were taken down but no one even went after Chrome, despite the fact that Google offered an addition $20,000 on top of the contest’s $15,000 prize.

Google’s Chrome is currently the only browser eligible for the Pwn2Own contest that hasn’t yet been exploited. Contestants regularly cite the difficulty in bypassing Google’s security sandbox as the reason.

“While we’re proud of Chrome’s leading track record in past competitions, the fact is that not receiving exploits means that it’s harder to learn and improve,” wrote Chris Evans and Justin Schuh, members of the Google Chrome security team. “To maximize our chances of receiving exploits this year, we’ve upped the ante. We will directly sponsor up to $1 million worth of rewards.”

In that same blog post the security team revealed that they would be removing Chrome from the Pwn2Own contest because the rules didn’t require winners to reveal specifics of their exploits. The whole reason Google wants their browser to be hacked is so that they can fix potential vulnerabilities. A Google spokesperson told Ars Technica,

“Specifically, they do not have to reveal the sandbox escape component of their exploit. Sandbox escapes are very dangerous bugs so it is not in the best interests of user safety to have these kept secret. The whitehat community needs to fix them and study them. Our ultimate goal here is to make the web safer.”

We’ll see if the extra cash Google is offering is enough to get hackers to try and topple Chrome this year.