Endpoint Security

Zerodium Buying Zero-Day Exploits Targeting VPN Software

Exploit acquisition company Zerodium on Tuesday announced that it’s looking to buy zero-day exploits targeting popular VPN software.

Specifically, the company wants to acquire exploits that work against the Windows versions of the ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Surfshark applications. These VPN services have millions of users.

Eduard Kovacs

October 20, 2021

Exploit acquisition company Zerodium on Tuesday announced that it’s looking to buy zero-day exploits targeting popular VPN software.

Specifically, the company wants to acquire exploits that work against the Windows versions of the ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Surfshark applications. These VPN services have millions of users.

Zerodium is looking for remote code execution, IP address leak, and other information disclosure exploits. It does not want to acquire local privilege escalation vulnerabilities.

Zerodium buying VPN exploits

The company has not said how much it’s willing to pay for the zero-day exploits. SecurityWeek has reached out to the firm for more information, but we have yet to receive a response.

ExpressVPN and NordVPN both run bug bounty programs. ExpressVPN offers up to $2,500 per vulnerability with bonuses of up to $10,000, while NordVPN offers $5,000 or more for critical security flaws. Zerodium is likely prepared to pay out much more for zero-day exploits.

ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Surfshark are mostly used by consumers and there aren’t any reports of vulnerabilities in these applications being exploited in attacks.

On the other hand, there are many reports of enterprise VPN solutions being targeted by threat actors, particularly products made by Fortinet, Pulse Secure, Citrix, VMware, and Zimbra. The NSA issued an alert earlier this year, warning organizations that vulnerabilities in these products had been exploited by Russian cyberspies.

Zerodium is temporarily offering higher payouts for Chrome, VMware vCenter Server, and WordPress exploits. The company is offering up to $1 million for Chrome, $150,000 for vCenter Server, and $300,000 for WordPress exploits.

Written By Eduard Kovacs

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

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