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Google pays $1.5 million to anyone who can 'hack' their Pixel devices

Google pays $1.5 million to anyone who can 'hack' their Pixel devices

In the form of a contest, Google will pay 1.5 million dollars through a prize that is part of a program of the company, which aims to reward researchers who can find and report Android security issues on their Pixel devices.

Google announced that it will pay a total of 1.5 million dollars to anyone who is able to 'hack' their Pixel devices, according to a blog post on the company.

The awards announced are part of Google's Android Security Rewards (ASR) program, which aims to reward researchers who find and report security issues in this operating system. The ASR was created in 2015 and since then more than $ 4 million has been paid based on more than 1,800 reports.

The tech giant explained that the hacker, who manages to carry out a full-chain remote code execution exploit with persistence that compromises the Titan M secure chip - which is integrated into the Pixels - will receive a million dollars.

This means that this 'hacker' will have to access the operating system of the Pixel remotely, in a way that does not require any interaction with the user of the phone.

In addition, Google said the winner will receive a 50% bonus if they manage to find vulnerabilities in Android versions, which are still in the developer's preview stages.

Google has already paid more than $1.5 million this year, with an average of $3,800 per find.

The largest individual prize of 2019 was $161,337.

The rewards page specifies that all those users who exploit a vulnerability in Titan M without the user participating, can then earn up to 1 million dollars.

It is logical that the value of the rewards changes depending on the importance or severity of the vulnerability, because if it offers highly sensitive information about Titan M, then the prize is 500 thousand dollars, while if the vulnerability is related with other security elements on Android you could earn 250 thousand dollars.

On the other hand is the prize for skipping the screen lock on Android, which is valued at 100 thousand dollars.

Andrea Leal

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

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