A pair of hackers discovered a exposure in Air Force software that allow them to gain access to the Department of Defense ’s unclassified net — a find that earned them more than $ 10,000 , the largest payout ever in a governing hemipteran bounty platform .
Security researchers Brett Buerhaus and Mathias Karlsson uncovered the exposure during Hack the Air Force , a glitch bounty program similar to theHack the Army and Hack the Pentagon programs run by the US Defense Department .
germ bounty programs , which reward cyber-terrorist who retrieve vulnerabilities with John Cash , are common in the technical school industry . But the US government has been a mo slow to adopt them , for several reasons : Federal agencies have stricter road map about how they can pass their budget , and they ’re a turn more conservative about open up themselves up to hackers . But that ’s been changing slowly since the Defense Department launched its first hemipteron bounty last year .
“ I did n’t expect how uncoerced they were to turn with us to figure out the issue and see how impactful it was , ” Buerhaus said in a statement . “ There ’s such a perception of the government being closed off and quick to tangle issues under the rug . It was great see how excited they were to work with us . This honestly interchange everything , and it ’s clean they care about working with us to protect their interests . ”
Over the form of just nine hours , Buerhaus , Karlsson , and dozens of other take part hackers were capable to see 55 vulnerabilities in Air Force computer software . Theprogramwill continue through January 1 , giving hackers even more time to discover flaw .
Bauerhaus and Karlsson will cleave the $ 10,650 bug premium , which is more than twice the previous top Hack the Air Force bug premium payout . The first Hack the Air Force challenge , which washeld earlier this year , give a top bug premium of $ 5,000 . Hack the Army and Hack the Pentagon have each maxed out around $ 3,000 . ( These are just the public payouts , though , and individual bounty are often higher , sometimes straddle as high-pitched as $ 30,000 . )
“ Hack the Air Force allowed us to look outward and leverage the range of talent in our country and pardner nation to assure our defenses , ” Air Force chief info security police officer Peter Kim say in a statement . “ We ’re greatly flesh out on the tremendous success of the first challenge by open up up approximately 300 public face AF websites . The toll - benefit of this partnership is invaluable . ”
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