Firefox, Java, Flash All Taken Down at Pwn2Own

VANCOUVER–Finding and exploiting new vulnerabilities in the major browsers has become a difficult exercise for security researchers, thanks to the exploit mitigations, sandboxes and other protections that Microsoft, Google and Mozilla have added in the last few years. The same has become true of...

Chaouki Bekrar

The team from French research firm VUPEN, including CEO Chaouki Bekrar, has dominated the Pwn2Own hacking contest, taking down several targets, including Internet Explorer 10, Java and Mozilla Firefox. They plan to attack Adobe Flash on Thursday...

Google Announces Pwnium 3, Ups Ante and Offers $3M+ in Rewards

Search giant Google is planning a third iteration of its vulnerability-finding contest, Pwnium. This year’s competition is set to be held alongside next month’s CanSecWest security conference on March 7 in Vancouver, BC. Unlike last year’s inaugural Pwnium, which was parallel to CanSecWest’s olde...

Pwn2Own Rules Change Again, Flash, Java Now Fair Game for Contestants

For the second year in row, the organizers of the Pwn2Own hacking contest at the CanSecWest conference have changed up the rules, this time making the browser plug-ins that have been frequent targets for attackers for years fair game for the contestants, as well. Adobe Flash, Reader and Oracle’s...

Penetration Testing Frequently Asked Questions

You may have noticed this recent article about Googles contest that rewarded a hacker for discovering a vulnerability in Chrome. Once Google verified the vulnerability, they were able to fix the bug and issue the cash prize to the hacker. This is a very public example similar to what Coalfire Lab...

PinkiePie Strikes Again, Compromises Google Chrome in Pwnium Contest at Hack in the Box

For the second time this year, an anonymous teenage security researcher has succeeded in producing a full exploit, including a sandbox escape, against Google Chrome. The researcher, who uses the pseudonym PinkiePie, submitted his exploit Wednesday during the Pwnium contest run by Google at the Ha...

As Bug Bounty Programs Mature, Still More Room For Growth

Google’s recent announcements that the company is doubling some of the rewards in its Chromium Vulnerability Reward Program and will also be committing up to $2 million for another round of the Pwnium contest in a couple of months brought a round of cheers from the security research community. Th...

Google to Hold Pwnium 2 Contest, Offers $2M in Rewards

Google has been handing out rewards to researchers who discover vulnerabilities in the company’s products and Web properties for several years now, both through its Chrome bug bounty program and its Pwnium contest at this year’s CanSecWest conference. Company officials say that the programs have...

DEFCON Kids Returns, Now With 0-Day

DEFCON is inviting the kids back again this year for the second edition of DEFCON Kids, and this time, there’s zero-days involved. The not-for-profit conference is dedicated to teaching kids about white-hat hacking, security, privacy and hardware skills. The learning starts at DEFCONKids.org, whe...

Microsoft Reveals Blue Hat Prize Finalists

Microsoft has announced the three finalists for its $200,000 Blue Hat Prize contest and all three of the researchers in the running for the win submitted technologies designed to defeat ROP return-oriented programming exploits. Each of the entrants takes a different tack with his ROP defense and ...

Apple Fixes Serious Flaws in iOS 5.1.1

Apple has patched several serious security bugs in iOS with the release of version 5.1.1 of the mobile operating system. The most serious of the security vulnerabilities could be used for remote code execution. The highest severity vulnerability that’s fixed in iOS 5.1.1 is a WebKit flaw that can...

LA Times Profiles Cyber Defense Competition For Teens

The U.S. and other advanced nations face a drastic cyber security skills gap. Attacks from sophisticated and unsophisticated attackers are on the rise, even as more and more companies and government agencies move more of what they do online to Web based services and the cloud. Of course, the skil...

Six High-Risk Flaws Fixed in Google Chrome

Google has fixed nine new vulnerabilities in its Chrome browser, including six high-risk flaws. The most serious of the bugs include three separate use-after-free vulnerabilities in various parts of the browser. As part of its researcher reward program, Google paid out $5,500 in bounties for...

Roman Andreev wins Facebook Hacker Cup 2012

Roman Andreev wins Facebook Hacker Cup 2012 25 of the world's best hackers gathered for Facebook's 2nd annual Hacker Cup event being held at its offices in Menlo Park. Roman Andreev from Russia completed one problem correctly in 1 hr 4 min and won Facebook's Hacker Cup to get his name placed on a...

Google Fixes Second Set of Chrome Bugs Used in Pwnium Contest

Google has pushed out a patch for the second full sandbox escape exploit used in the Pwnium contest at CanSecWest. The Chrome vulnerabilities that the exploit targeted were discovered by an anonymous researcher who used the name PinkiePie and claimed a $60,000 reward from Google. The attack that...

Chaouki Bekrar: The Man Behind the Bugs

VANCOUVER–Say what you will about Chaouki Bekrar, but the man is nothing if not frank. Bekrar, who is the public face of the VUPEN team that has been toying with the Pwn2Own contest this week, has become a lightning rod in the debate over exploit sales, and from all outward appearances, he couldn...

Google Chrome Goes Down in Early Stage of Pwn2Own

VANCOUVER–A group of researchers from VUPEN, a French security firm, was able to compromise Google Chrome in the initial stages of the Pwn2Own contest. But because of the new rules this year, that doesn’t guarantee them a win in the contest. Rather, it just gives them a nice head start. The...

Google Hands out $60k Reward for Full Chrome Compromise in Pwnium Contest

VANCOUVER–Well, that didn’t take long. Before the first session of the CanSecWest conference here even started on Wednesday, a researcher had already succeeded in scoring a full compromise of Google Chrome, using two distinct bugs, and earning himself a $60,000 reward as part of the company’s...

An End to Offensive Security Research? Unlikely

Many industries tend to run in identifiable cycles. Financial services, the auto industry, entertainment–they all have cycles. Because the security industry isn’t nearly as old as any of these, it hasn’t had much of a chance to establish such cycles. But one seems to be appearing now in the form ...

Google Patches 14 Chrome Bugs Ahead of Pwn2Own, Pays $30k in Special Rewards

Just two days before the annual Pwn2Own contest is set to begin at CanSecWest, Google has patched a huge set of serious vulnerabilities in its Chrome browser. In addition to the 14 high-risk flaws fixed in Chrome, the company also handed out rewards of $10,000 each to three researchers who...