Google Play Ends Security Reward Program In Popular Android Apps
Google is ending its bug bounty program. According to Android Authority, the Google Play Security Reward Program will end on August 31.
The tech giant claimed it would analyse any reports received before that date until September 15, and its financial prizes will formally end on September 30.
Newsng gathered that the purpose of Google’s Bug Bounty program is to provide financial rewards and recognition in the bug-hunting community to white-hat hackers who identify and disclose security flaws for a range of Google-owned goods.
With prizes of up to $5,000 for the most serious vulnerabilities, such as remote code execution, the program first concentrated on a small subset of developers and apps.
The scope eventually expanded to encompass all platform-distributed apps with over 100 million downloads in 2019 and rewards up to $20,000.
In an email seen by Android Authority, the Android Security Team wrote: “As a result of the overall increase in the Android OS security posture and feature hardening efforts, we’ve seen fewer actionable vulnerabilities reported by the research community.”
Developers of some of the most popular Android apps, including Airbnb, Alibaba, Amazon, Dropbox, Facebook, Grammarly, Instacart, Line, Lyft, Opera, Paypal, Pinterest, Shopify, Snapchat, Spotify, Telegram, Tesla, TikTok, Tinder, VLC, and Zomato, are now included in the Google Play Security Reward Program’s scope, which has grown over time.
Google expanded the scope of the GPSRP in August 2019 to include any Google Play apps with 100 million or more installations, regardless of whether they had their own bug bounty or vulnerability disclosure program.
The maximum prize for remote code execution defects was raised to $20,000 in July 2019, while the payout for bugs that resulted in the theft of sensitive personal information or unauthorised access to program components was set at $3,000.
We earlier reported that Google’s Fitbit is collaborating with Peloton Interactive to give its premium users access to the exercise equipment manufacturer’s fitness content.
