Hacking

Google awarded Chinese hacker record $112,500 for Android exploit chain

Google has awarded a record $112,500 to a security researcher for reporting an exploit chain that could be used to hack Pixel smartphones.

Last week the Google disclosed the technical details of the exploit chain that was devised in August 2017 by the Guang Gong from Alpha Team at Qihoo 360 Technology. The exploit chain triggers two vulnerabilities, CVE-2017-5116 and CVE-2017-14904, researchers submitted it through the Android Security Rewards (ASR) program.

“The exploit chain includes two bugs, CVE-2017-5116 and CVE-2017-14904. CVE-2017-5116 is a V8 engine bug that is used to get remote code execution in sandboxed Chrome render process. CVE-2017-14904 is a bug in Android’s libgralloc module that is used to escape from Chrome’s sandbox. Together, this exploit chain can be used to inject arbitrary code into system_server by accessing a malicious URL in Chrome.” reads the analysis published by Google.

Chaining the vulnerabilities the attackers can remotely inject arbitrary code into the system_server process when a malicious URL in Chrome is accessed.

In an attack scenario, the victims can be tricked into clicking on such a URL by hackers that can fully compromise their mobile device.

Gong was awarded $105,000 for this exploit chain, he received also an additional award of $7500 through the Chrome Rewards program.

Google addressed the flaws as part of Google Android ‘s December security bulletin that addressed a total of 42 bugs.

Pixel mobile devices and partner devices using A/B updates will automatically install the security updates that fixed the flaws.

“The Android security team responded quickly to our report and included the fix for these two bugs in the December 2017 Security Update. Supported Google device and devices with the security patch level of 2017-12-05 or later address these issues.” concluded Google.

The overall ASR payout rewards is over $1.5 million to date, with the top research team earning $300,000 for 118 vulnerability reports.

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Android exploit chain, hacking)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

Recent Posts

Romania’s national oil pipeline firm Conpet reports cyberattack<gwmw style="display:none;"></gwmw>

Romania’s national oil pipeline operator Conpet said a cyberattack disrupted its business systems and temporarily…

1 hour ago

Flickr moves to contain data exposure, warns users of phishing

Flickr says a flaw at a third-party email provider may have exposed users’ names, email…

9 hours ago

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 83

Security Affairs Malware newsletter includes a collection of the best articles and research on malware…

20 hours ago

Security Affairs newsletter Round 562 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

A new round of the weekly Security Affairs newsletter has arrived! Every week, the best…

21 hours ago

DKnife toolkit abuses routers to spy and deliver malware since 2019

DKnife is a Linux toolkit used since 2019 to hijack router traffic and deliver malware…

24 hours ago

Italian university La Sapienza still offline to mitigate recent cyber attack

Rome’s La Sapienza University was hit by a cyberattack that disrupted IT systems and caused…

2 days ago

This website uses cookies.