Google's Chrome Fell at Pwn2Own, But Remained Defiant at Pwnium 3

We talked earlier this week about all of the software that lost their battles against the hackers at the Pwn2Own competition in Vancouver, Canada, but lest we forget about the sister competition, Pwnium 3. This particular competition was heavily sponsored by Google, with the company paying well more than $100,000 per exploit discovered against its Chrome browser. Examples would be a system compromise delivered via a webpage while in guest mode or even better - an exploit that results in device persistence (lasting through the reboots).

Well, while Chrome fell at Pwn2Own - despite Google patching 6 severe bugs prior to the event - it remained strong at Pwnium 3. Equipped with Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks and nothing but the software included, the hackers were simply unable to exploit the system in any significant way. Google did however mention that "partial" exploits were discovered, which we'd assume might qualify the participants in partial rewards (though it's not explicitly stated).

Given the prizes being offered, this sure does say a lot about the Chromebook's security, and the fact that Google shelled out $3.14 million for the prize bucket also proves its intent to make its browser as secure as possible - on any platform.