Google Chrome the First Browser Hacked at Pwn2Own 2012

ZDNet: After Google offered a bounty to any hacker who could expose a vulnerability in its Chrome browser, Chrome was the first browser to fall in the annual Pwn2Own hacking competition. For the previous two years of the competition, no teams had found vulnerabilities in tChrome. “We wanted to show that Chrome was not unbreakable. Last year, we saw a lot of headlines that no one could hack Chrome. We wanted to make sure it was the first to fall this year,” said Chaouki Bekrar of VUPEN, the company that found the vulnerabilities.

Despite the successful attack, Bekrar remained complimentary towards the Google browser. “The Chrome sandbox is the most secure sandbox out there. It’s not an easy task to create a full exploit to bypass all the protections in the sandbox.I can say that Chrome is one of the most secure browsers available.” he said. “This just shows that any browser, or any software, can be hacked if there is enough motivation and skill.”