Pwn2Own 2016 Won't Attack Firefox (Because It's Too Easy) (eweek.com)

darthcamaro writes: For the last decade, the Pwn2own hacking competition has pitted the world's best hackers against web browsers to try and find zero-day vulnerabilities in a live event. The contest, which is sponsored by HPE and TrendMicro this year, is offering over half a million dollars in prize money, but for the first time, not a penny of that will directed to Mozilla Firefox. While Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Apple Safari are targets, Firefox isn't because it's apparently too easy and not keeping up with modern security: "'We wanted to focus on the browsers that have made serious security improvements in the last year,' Brian Gorenc, manager of Vulnerability Research at HPE said."

Comments

This is a big bitchslap to Mozilla

[Sax Russell 5449D29A]

As an avid Firefox user, I have to agree. Firefox is good because it's customizable, but it certainly lacks some inherent security features found in other major browsers. Many of the security risks can probably be averted by configuring the browser for added privacy and disabling certain features, but this is no excuse for lagging behind.

Maybe Mozilla will someday focus on its core competencies again and stop fooling around with nonsense like Firefox OS...

Re:This is a big bitchslap to Mozilla

[RandomFactor]

"The only advantage Firefox gives is that one can run NoScript to block all scripting completely."

However, that's a pretty significant advantage.

I would love to see how firefox compares with that one addon in place since that's how I run.

Possibly a 'hardened browsers' version of the competition?

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

They didn't say Firefox isn't secure, they said it hasn't made many recent security improvements; that's not the same thing. Firefox already had superior security, so it has not had to make many improvements in the last year compared to less secure browsers.

Re:Wait a mintue

[BZ]

Or maybe this is the contest organizers trolling? Because I know for a fact Firefox made serious security improvements in the last year; I reviewed some of those patches.

Re:what?

[NotDrWho]

Sorry, but I'll still take Firefox over Chrome, IE, or Opera any day. Here is the dialogue I always have on some message board whenever I try to go over to Chrome:

Me: Where is the menu bar?

Them: You don't need a menu bar, the menu button will do everything instead.

Me: Will it let me open a file?

Them: Uhm....well...no.

Can I at least add a stop button and zoom controls to the toolbar?

Them: Sorry, Chrome doesn't allow any customization. You're supposed to do it the way Google tells you to.

Me: Okay. Where are the options to automatically clear my history at close, erase all cookies at close, not remember search form histories, etc.?

Them: Why would you need that?

Me: For privacy.

Them: What's "privacy"?

Me: It's something Google has never, and will never, respect.