Pwn2Own 2018: Focus Changes To Kernel Exploits As Browsers Get Harder To Hack

[Lucian Armasu]

This year's Pwn2Own competition was less intense, as many Chinese security teams were banned from participating. However, as browsers' sandboxes have improved, we can spot a trend in using kernel exploits to bypass browser security.

Pwn2Own 2018: Focus Changes To Kernel Exploits As Browsers Get Harder To Hack : Read more

 

[bit_user]

OS kernels, whether it’s Linux, the macOS kernel, or the Windows kernel, now count millions of lines of code, so the potential for bugs in them is larger than most people may think.

The numbers for Linux are skewed by the fact that the gross count includes all of the in-tree device drivers, as well as the architecture-specific parts for all supported CPUs. According to some stats from a couple years back, the non-driver and non-arch parts have only ~140k LOC.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/223746/why-is-the-linux-kernel-15-million-lines-of-code

As for the arch bits, you're only using a very small amount of that, on any given install. The more standard your hardware config, the better tested you can expect the drivers & arch-specific parts to be.

 

[alan_rave]

Richard Zhu is not from China?

 

[bit_user]

Richard Zhu is not from China?

I think they mean teams based in China, or perhaps even specifically Chinese cyber security professionals.

Are you just going by the name, or do you know that he currently lives there?

Either way, he won $120k in two days. Not bad!

 

[bit_user]

Overall, we awarded $267,000 over the two-day contest while acquiring five Apple bugs, four Microsoft bugs, two Oracle bugs, and one Mozilla bug.

Wow, those are some expensive bugs!