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$16,000 Bounty for Sendmail, Apache Zero-Day Flaws

Posted by Zonk on from the step-right-up-rilly-big-shew dept.

Famestay writes "Verisign's iDefense is putting up a $16,000 prize for any hacker who can find a remotely exploitable vulnerability in six critical Internet infrastructure applications. The bounty is for a zero-day code execution hole on the following Internet infrastructure technologies: Apache httpd, Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) daemon, Sendmail SMTP daemon, OpenSSH sshd, Microsoft Internet Information (IIS) Server and Microsoft Exchange Server. 'Immunity founder Dave Aitel, who also purchases flaws and exploits for use in the CANVAS pen testing tool, says its doubtful iDefense will get any submissions from hackers. "It's very hard to exploit [those listed applications]," Aitel said. "IIS 6 hasn't had a public remotely exploitable bug in it. Ever." Several other hackers I spoke to had very much the same message, arguing that $16,000 can never equate to the amount of work/expertise required to find and exploit a hole in the six targeted technologies.'"

9 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. $16,000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    arguing that $16,000 can never equate to the amount of work/expertise required to find and exploit a hole in the six targeted technologies. Clearly, the so called experts aren't aware of the multitudes of enterprising folks living outside the inflated Western wage spectrum. For someone a little more eastbound, that's a nice chunk of change.

  2. IIS 6 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny


    IIS 6 hasn't had a public remotely exploitable bug in it. Ever.

    How can that be? IIS is crap! Slashdot tells me so!

    1. Re:IIS 6 by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

      No one has ever found a hole in it because no one has ever managed to keep it up and running for long enough to find one without it crashing first.

    2. Re:IIS 6 by Bishop · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Lighttpd may seem to have been built with security in mind, but it hasn't. Superficially Lighttpd does all the right security things, but search for "lighttpd memory leak." Secure software does not leak memory.

  3. Look at me, I'm a hacker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    $16000 is not worth the time to make the internet safer. Now stop bothering me while I spend my time trying to figure out how to save $15 by cracking DVDs. After that, I'm off to steal some music.

  4. Not to mention ability to convert O2 to CO2... by Kadin2048 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Also, you may be able to collect multiple bounties from different organizations for the same hole.

    True ... but I bet breaking an NDA with the Russian mob could adversely affect your ability to work in the computer-security field in the future.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  5. Free money by ThanatosMinor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if the current rise in prizes being offered for discovering vulnerabilities in code might lead to some sneaky behavior.

    1. Leave subtle flaw in your code
    2. Share information with distant acquaintance
    3. Profit!

  6. Re:No, but... by Darlantan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Also, you may be able to collect multiple bounties from different organizations for the same hole.

    Yeah, but pimpin' ain't easy.

    --
    Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
  7. FYI by Slashcrap · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess some people reading this may be more used to Windows and therefore not entirely familiar with the functionality of the Unix packages that were mentioned. Allow me to summarise :

    OpenSSH - A service you can install on a Unix system to enable remote admin access for known users.

    Sendmail - A service you can install on a Unix system to enable remote admin access for complete strangers.

    Hope this helps.....