Microsoft is offering up to $30,000 for vulnerabilities found in the new version of its Edge browser.
Microsoft this week announced the release of the first Beta preview of the upcoming version of Edge, which is based on Chromium. The company also unveiled a new bug bounty program that gives researchers the opportunity to earn significant bounties for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities in the new Edge.
According to Microsoft, the new Edge Insider Bounty Program is meant to complement Google’s Chrome Vulnerability Reward Program — since both Chrome and Edge are now based on Chromium, some vulnerabilities may impact both browsers. Microsoft’s goal, however, is to identify security flaws that affect the Chromium-based Edge but do not impact Chrome.
Microsoft says the new program is separate from the Edge (EdgeHTML) on Windows Insider Preview program, which offers up to $15,000 for critical remote code execution and design issues in Edge.
Through the Edge Insider program, Microsoft is offering between $1,000 and $30,000 per vulnerability, depending on the impact of the flaw and the quality of the report.
For instance, $30,000 is offered for a critical privilege escalation vulnerability with a Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG) container escape, and $15,000 is offered for a critical privilege escalation that does not include the container escape, as long as the researcher submits a high-quality report. Critical remote code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities are worth up to $10,000.
The tech giant has also promised that vulnerabilities reported through the new bug bounty program will be rewarded faster than usual.
Microsoft noted that reporting a vulnerability through the Edge Insider program can earn researchers twice as many points in the Researcher Recognition Program. These points are used by the company to create public leaderboards and rankings.
“We’re excited to expand our bounty programs today to include the next version of Microsoft Edge and continue to grown and strengthen our partnership with the security research community,” said Jarek Stanley, senior program manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).
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