Google paid its highest-ever bug bounty last year
Google paid out over $12 million in bug bounties in 2022
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Someone made a lot of money discovering vulnerabilities inGoogleproducts in 2022, the company has revealed.
The search engine giant recently disclosed the results of itsVulnerability Reward Program, a bug bounty campaign that rewards ethical hackers who discover major flaws in its products and disclose them responsibly instead of giving hackers an opportunity to abuse them withmalware.
In total, the company paid out more than $12 million for roughly 2,900 vulnerabilities over the course of 2022.
Flaws in Android, Chrome, and ChromeOS
One unique report stands out in Google’s report - a hacker discovered an exploit chain, involving five separate vulnerabilities in Android - CVE-2022-20427, CVE-2022-20428, CVE-2022-20454, CVE-2022-20459, CVE-2022-20460. Google decided the exploit chain warranted a $605,000 reward.
The person who discovered the exploit chain goes by the alias gzobqq, BleepingComputer reported, adding that the same person earned $157,000 in 2021, as well, for a critical exploit chain in Android. Both these exploit chains were the highest bug bounty in Android at their respective times.
Looking at Android specifically, last year Google paid out $4.8 million in rewards. The three most active hackers reported 200, 150, and 100 bugs, respectively.
Furthermore, the company paid out almost $500,000 for 700 reports done through the Android Chipset Security Reward Program. ACSRP is a private bug bounty program reserved only for Android chipset manufacturers.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
For 363 flaws discovered in Chrome, and 110 in ChromeOS, Google paid out $4 million.
Google is upping its Linux bug bounty prize>Meta is getting serious about its bug bounty program>These are the best endpoint protection solutions around
Most major tech companies operate bug bounty programs, as they are a great way to incentivize the wider cybersecurity community to participate in the strengthening of the world’s most popular software.
In August 2022,Microsoftreported paying out $13.7 million in rewards, to 330 security researchers across 46 countries. The largest award, under the Hyper-V Bounty Program, was $200,000, the company added, while the average award was approximately $12,000.
Apple, on the other hand, said it paid out $20 million via its bug bounty program in 2022, with the average reward in the product category being $40,000.
Via:BleepingComputer
Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.
7 myths about email security everyone should stop believing
Best Usenet client of 2024
A newly reported iPhone phenomenon could be bad news for both cops and robbers
