Google announces Pwnium 3. Chrome OS would be the highlight this time around.


Google Chrome OS is turning out to be a dark horse for Google. The company began with Acer and Samsung. Lenovo joined the group recently when they launched their first Chromebook with ThinkPad branding.

And now Hewlett Packard is expected to announce their first Pavilion branded Chromebook next month.

Google has just announced the third Pwnium event and the company said that focus this time around would be on Chrome OS.

This is a good chance for Google to show how secure Chrome OS really is. It would boost the chances of corporate adoption of this platform.

Google said:

Today we’re announcing our third Pwnium competition—Pwnium 3. Google Chrome is already featured in the Pwn2Own competition this year, so Pwnium 3 will have a new focus: Chrome OS.

We’ll issue Pwnium 3 rewards for Chrome OS at the following levels, up to a total of $3.14159 million USD:

$110,000: browser or system level compromise in guest mode or as a logged-in user, delivered via a web page.
$150,000: compromise with device persistence — guest to guest with interim reboot, delivered via a web page.

We believe these larger rewards reflect the additional challenge involved with tackling the security defenses of Chrome OS, compared to traditional operating systems.