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Develop an iOS 9 Zero-day exploit and earn $1 million

By Alan Friedman

Updated: Sep 21, 2015, 5:59 PM

iOS

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Develop a way to hack into iOS 9 and earn $1 million

Amid revelations that a rogue version of Xcode, downloaded from Baidu, helped spread malware to 39 iOS apps, a security company known as Zerodium says that it will pay $1 million for a method that can hack into iOS 9. The latest version of Apple's mobile OS was just pushed out by the tech titan last week. The company says that it will be willing to pay the $1 million more than once, but says that it won't payout more than $3 million.

To claim the $1 million 'prize', a person must submit a technique to Zerodium that will remotely take control of an iPhone or iPad running iOS 9. This can be achieved through the use of a web page that targets the default configuration of mobile Safari or Google Chrome, or through a web page that targets any app reachable via the browser, or via a text message. The bug cannot be disclosed to Apple or be publicly revealed. The company will end up selling these techniques to governments or corporations. Zerodium founder Chaouki Bekrar also founded French hacking Vupen, which develops "intrusion software" and sells it to government agencies world-wide.

"Due to the increasing number of security improvements and the effectiveness of exploit mitigations in place, Apple’s iOS is currently the most secure mobile OS. But don’t be fooled, secure does not mean unbreakable, it just means that iOS has currently the highest cost and complexity of vulnerability exploitation and here’s where the Million Dollar iOS 9 Bug Bounty comes into play.-Zerodium website

Zerodium’s main goal is to capture the most advanced zero-day exploits and the highest risk vulnerabilities which are discovered, held, or sometimes stockpiled by talented researchers around the globe."-Chaouki Bekrar, founder, Zerodium

Zerodium, which was launched this summer, sells what is known as Zero-day vulnerabilities to both governments and corporations. According to Bekrar, once an exploit is sold to an agency by Vupen, he has no way of knowing how it is used or who it is shared with. "We do the best we can to ensure it won’t go outside that agency," Bekrar said back in 2012. "But if you sell weapons to someone, there’s no way to ensure that they won’t sell to another agency."

The million dollar offer is open until October 31st, 2015, or until $3 million is paid out by Zerodium.

Thanks for the tip!

source: Zerodium via WIRED

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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