Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Hack Chromebook In Guest Mode, Win $100,000

Posted by timothy on from the money-where-mouth-is dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Google has once again upped the ante for bug hunters concentrating on Chrome, and is now offering $100,000 to anyone capable of achieving a compromise of a Chromebook or Chromebox (the desktop variant of the Chromebook laptop) with device persistence in guest mode (i.e. guest to guest persistence with interim reboot, delivered via a web page). From Google's Monday announcement: Last year we introduced a $50,000 reward for the persistent compromise of a Chromebook in guest mode. Since we introduced the $50,000 reward, we haven't had a successful submission. That said, great research deserves great awards, so we're putting up a standing six-figure sum, available all year round with no quotas and no maximum reward pool.

5 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Manages high security by Chrisq · · Score: 2

    Manages high security by being very limited. Don't get me wrong, if all you want is a portable machine with a browser then it's great.

    1. Re:Manages high security by LichtSpektren · · Score: 2

      Nowadays there's a web app version of almost everything. A thin client can do a lot of 2016. When you consider the fact that 90% of the human race just wants to use social media, write emails, shop and watch videos, it's not a bad sell.

  2. Re:I've got an idea for another contest! by LichtSpektren · · Score: 2

    I've got a great idea for another contest. The Slashdot headline for the submission about it could be, "Use Chromebook Productively, Win $100,000".

    As that title states, if somebody can manage to do something even slightly productive (sorry, browsing Facebook doesn't count!) using a Chromebook, they'd get $100,000.

    To be honest, I think there's a greater likelihood of a payout in this security challenge than there would be in that productivity challenge.

    I'd imagine many reporters, secretaries, actors, interpreters/translators, librarians, web developers, etc. could get by just fine with a browser.

  3. Nice to see Google pushing this by sasparillascott · · Score: 2

    Chrome is getting alot more popular with users and schools in particular, its nice to see them pushing on the security like this - up to this point it probably hasn't been worth the time of someone to compromise it (from a marketshare standpoint), but that day is coming. It's good Google is trying to stay ahead of that.

  4. Re:What would hacking Guest mode get you? by Luthair · · Score: 2

    Presumably the persistent compromise would affect any logged in user.