A few days ago we informed you of the launch of a new Apple rewards program in which it wants any hackers who find some kind of vulnerability in iOS to inform the company. To do this, it has endowed this program with rewards of up to $ 200.000. Of course, no worker or family member of the company can participate as is logical. This announcement was made at the Black Hat Security Conference in which an Apple security officer participated and is not limited to iOS only, but also any bugs that are discovered also in watchOS, tvOS and macOS.
As if the motivation of being able to obtain large rewards for finding bugs in any of the operating systems of the Cupertino-based company were not enough, the company Exodus Intelligence just raised the bar by offering up to $ 500.000 for finding any flaws currently only iOS 9.3x. Obviously, it is not the only reward it offers, but it also offers rewards for finding vulnerability in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Windows 10, Adobe Reader ...
Exodus has taken advantage of the international echo of these conferences to make the announcement. This signature make money buying vulnerabilities and subsequently offering them to people who want to exploit them to hack devices. At the moment Exodus is offering rewards between 5.000 and 500.000 dollars for obtaining a vulnerability in iOS 9.3x, the main objective of the company at the moment and until iOS 10 is launched, which is just around the corner.
The vulnerabilities baptized with the name Zero-day are those that the creator of the software is not aware of and the name is derived from that the company has zero days to prepare for an attack based on this flaw. These types of vulnerabilities are highly coveted by companies and government agencies that try to access manufacturers' devices without having to knock on the door first. It is very likely that such an exploit was used by the company that managed to help breach the security of the iPhone 5c used in the San Bernardino attacks.