Researchers take $28k ‘first blood’ on Microsoft’s bug bounty program

More than 28,000 USD actually is being paid by Microsoft to security researchers who participated in its first ever bug bounty program.

It was the Internet Explorer 11 bug bounty program that run for 1-month attracted people who are practicing responsible disclosure.

Here is a list of rewarded individuals that found vulnerabilities during the preview period of IE11, provided by Wang Wei.

 

• James Forshaw, Context Security
  • 4 Internet Explorer 11 Preview Bug Bounty – $4,400
  • 1 Bonus for finding cool IE design vulnerabilities – $5,000
• Jose Antonio Vazquez Gonzalez, Yenteasy – Security Research
  • 5 Internet Explorer 11 Preview Bug Bounty vulnerabilities – $5,500
• Ivan Fratric, Google, Inc security team
  • Internet Explorer 11 Preview Bug Bounty $1,100 – Donated to Save the Children Fund
• Masato Kinugawa
  • 2 Internet Explorer 11 Preview Bug Bounty vulnerabilities – $2,200
• Fermin J. Serna, Google, Inc
  • 1 Internet Explorer 11 Preview Bug Bounty $500 – Donated to Save the Seattle Humane Society
• Peter Vreugdenhil, Exodus Intelligence
  • 1 Internet Explorer 11 Preview Bug Bounty – Tier 1

It is interesting to note when, 2 Google engineers participated in the program. With good heart, both of them decided to donate the money for “Save the Children Fund.”

At the moment, the highest possible reward as stated by Microsoft is as much as $100,000. It could only be given if someone found a serious exploitation flaw in the latest version of Windows – Windows 8.1.