If You Can Hack An iPhone, Apple May Pay You $2 Million

In comparison with most firms, Apple has historically been considerably stingy in the case of rewarding people who unearth iPhone exploits. Extra just lately, although, Apple has come to the conclusion that if it desires to find and patch severe iPhone exploits earlier than they get taken benefit of by malicious actors, it has to extend the rewards obtainable to safety researchers.

In mild of the above, Apple just lately made vital adjustments to its bug bounty program. On October 10, Apple introduced that the highest award for an iPhone exploit is now $2 million, in comparison with $1 million beforehand. Naturally, to get the $2 million, customers must uncover an exploit that “can obtain comparable targets as subtle mercenary spyware and adware assaults.” Apple boasts that the $2 million determine is the most important quantity provided by any bug bounty program at the moment in existence. Apple provides that the $2 million payout can leap to $5 million if accompanied by different exploits like bypassing Lockdown Mode.

Moreover, Apple says that it is boosting the payouts for different exploits. For instance, a technique to bypass Gatekeeper is now value $100,000, whereas an exploit able to unauthorized iCloud entry now yields $1 million. On prime of all of it, Apple is increasing the scope of its bug bounty program to incorporate extra classes, together with WebKit hacks and wi-fi proximity exploits.

Over the previous 5 years, Apple notes that its bug bounty program has yielded greater than $35 million in awards to over 800 hackers and researchers. Underscoring Apple’s dedication to make its bug bounty particularly interesting is that it’s now providing an avenue for researchers to obtain awards on an accelerated monitor.

“We’re introducing Goal Flags, a brand new means for researchers to objectively display exploitability for a few of our prime bounty classes, together with distant code execution and Transparency, Consent, and Management (TCC) bypasses,” Apple writes. “Researchers who submit reviews with Goal Flags will qualify for accelerated awards, that are processed instantly after the analysis is acquired and verified, even earlier than a repair turns into obtainable.”

The entire above is nice, and highlights that Apple’s view of bug bounty packages has come a great distance. Observe that Apple did not implement its bug bounty program till 2020, a few years after bug bounty packages have been established at firms like Google. Earlier than Apple’s bug bounty program started, Apple’s relationship with safety researchers was removed from ideally suited. On the time, it wasn’t unusual to listen to safety researchers complain that efforts to relay found exploits to Apple have been typically unsuccessful.

All of that to say this: Apple’s bug bounty program has gone from nonexistent to arguably one of many extra complete and profitable packages within the tech sphere. Apple says its new bug bounty program is ready to go stay subsequent month.

One phrase that caught my eye in Apple’s announcement was that its $2 million prize is reserved for exploits just like “subtle mercenary spyware and adware assaults.” This focus highlights Apple’s ongoing efforts to bolster the iPhone towards extraordinarily subtle spyware and adware campaigns. 

Lately, spyware and adware has turn out to be extremely superior, a lot in order that it may generally infect an iPhone with no person interplay in any way. Recall that the NSO Group, for instance, has recurrently launched spyware and adware able to leveraging zero-day exploits to assault the iPhone. The NSO Group’s Pegasus software program is able to monitoring all points of a goal’s system, together with textual content messages, emails, photographs, and extra. The primary incarnation of Pegasus was significantly subtle as a result of it was in a position to set up itself if a person merely clicked on a hyperlink in an SMS message. More moderen NSO Group software program is able to infecting a tool with none person interplay in any respect, which is to say a person would not must click on a hyperlink or open a file to turn out to be weak.

For years, Apple would typically patch safety vulnerabilities exploited by the NSO Group, solely to see the agency launch new software program able to skirting round its safety obstacles. Apple ultimately grew so annoyed with the sport of cat-and-mouse that it sued the corporate in 2021 for its “surveillance and focusing on of Apple customers.”

“State-sponsored actors just like the NSO Group spend thousands and thousands of {dollars} on subtle surveillance applied sciences with out efficient accountability,” Apple’s Craig Federighi stated on the time. “Apple gadgets are probably the most safe client {hardware} in the marketplace — however personal firms creating state-sponsored spyware and adware have turn out to be much more harmful.” Apple in the end dropped the swimsuit in 2024, noting that the invention course of would reveal delicate safety data.

Whereas we’re on the subject of system safety and spyware and adware, it is value mentioning that Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup boasts a brand new safety function designed to higher fight spyware and adware. Apple calls the function Reminiscence Integrity Enforcement (MIE) and claims that it is the “most vital improve to reminiscence security within the historical past of client working programs.”

Put merely, the function prevents malicious code injection as a result of solely trusted code can run in protected reminiscence. Apple writes that the majority spyware and adware capabilities by exploiting “reminiscence security vulnerabilities” and that MIE is particularly designed to stop that exact assault vector. Apple has been engaged on MIE since 2020, and it is at the moment included in each iPhone 17 mannequin together with the iPhone Air.

In an Apple analysis report on MIE, the corporate stated its new safety function is so strong that it might make creating assault vectors towards the iPhone 17 prohibitively costly. Apple particularly boasts that MIE will “disrupt lots of the handiest exploitation strategies from the final 25 years, and fully redefine the panorama of reminiscence security for Apple merchandise.” Along with Apple’s extra expansive bug bounty program, it is clear that Apple is taking concrete steps to make sure that the iPhone stays much less inclined to malware than another smartphone in the marketplace.

In comparison with most firms, Apple has historically been considerably stingy in the case of rewarding people who unearth iPhone exploits. Extra just lately, although, Apple has come to the conclusion that if it desires to find and patch severe iPhone exploits earlier than they get taken benefit of by malicious actors, it has to extend the rewards obtainable to safety researchers.

In mild of the above, Apple just lately made vital adjustments to its bug bounty program. On October 10, Apple introduced that the highest award for an iPhone exploit is now $2 million, in comparison with $1 million beforehand. Naturally, to get the $2 million, customers must uncover an exploit that “can obtain comparable targets as subtle mercenary spyware and adware assaults.” Apple boasts that the $2 million determine is the most important quantity provided by any bug bounty program at the moment in existence. Apple provides that the $2 million payout can leap to $5 million if accompanied by different exploits like bypassing Lockdown Mode.

Moreover, Apple says that it is boosting the payouts for different exploits. For instance, a technique to bypass Gatekeeper is now value $100,000, whereas an exploit able to unauthorized iCloud entry now yields $1 million. On prime of all of it, Apple is increasing the scope of its bug bounty program to incorporate extra classes, together with WebKit hacks and wi-fi proximity exploits.

Over the previous 5 years, Apple notes that its bug bounty program has yielded greater than $35 million in awards to over 800 hackers and researchers. Underscoring Apple’s dedication to make its bug bounty particularly interesting is that it’s now providing an avenue for researchers to obtain awards on an accelerated monitor.

“We’re introducing Goal Flags, a brand new means for researchers to objectively display exploitability for a few of our prime bounty classes, together with distant code execution and Transparency, Consent, and Management (TCC) bypasses,” Apple writes. “Researchers who submit reviews with Goal Flags will qualify for accelerated awards, that are processed instantly after the analysis is acquired and verified, even earlier than a repair turns into obtainable.”

The entire above is nice, and highlights that Apple’s view of bug bounty packages has come a great distance. Observe that Apple did not implement its bug bounty program till 2020, a few years after bug bounty packages have been established at firms like Google. Earlier than Apple’s bug bounty program started, Apple’s relationship with safety researchers was removed from ideally suited. On the time, it wasn’t unusual to listen to safety researchers complain that efforts to relay found exploits to Apple have been typically unsuccessful.

All of that to say this: Apple’s bug bounty program has gone from nonexistent to arguably one of many extra complete and profitable packages within the tech sphere. Apple says its new bug bounty program is ready to go stay subsequent month.

One phrase that caught my eye in Apple’s announcement was that its $2 million prize is reserved for exploits just like “subtle mercenary spyware and adware assaults.” This focus highlights Apple’s ongoing efforts to bolster the iPhone towards extraordinarily subtle spyware and adware campaigns. 

Lately, spyware and adware has turn out to be extremely superior, a lot in order that it may generally infect an iPhone with no person interplay in any way. Recall that the NSO Group, for instance, has recurrently launched spyware and adware able to leveraging zero-day exploits to assault the iPhone. The NSO Group’s Pegasus software program is able to monitoring all points of a goal’s system, together with textual content messages, emails, photographs, and extra. The primary incarnation of Pegasus was significantly subtle as a result of it was in a position to set up itself if a person merely clicked on a hyperlink in an SMS message. More moderen NSO Group software program is able to infecting a tool with none person interplay in any respect, which is to say a person would not must click on a hyperlink or open a file to turn out to be weak.

For years, Apple would typically patch safety vulnerabilities exploited by the NSO Group, solely to see the agency launch new software program able to skirting round its safety obstacles. Apple ultimately grew so annoyed with the sport of cat-and-mouse that it sued the corporate in 2021 for its “surveillance and focusing on of Apple customers.”

“State-sponsored actors just like the NSO Group spend thousands and thousands of {dollars} on subtle surveillance applied sciences with out efficient accountability,” Apple’s Craig Federighi stated on the time. “Apple gadgets are probably the most safe client {hardware} in the marketplace — however personal firms creating state-sponsored spyware and adware have turn out to be much more harmful.” Apple in the end dropped the swimsuit in 2024, noting that the invention course of would reveal delicate safety data.

Whereas we’re on the subject of system safety and spyware and adware, it is value mentioning that Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup boasts a brand new safety function designed to higher fight spyware and adware. Apple calls the function Reminiscence Integrity Enforcement (MIE) and claims that it is the “most vital improve to reminiscence security within the historical past of client working programs.”

Put merely, the function prevents malicious code injection as a result of solely trusted code can run in protected reminiscence. Apple writes that the majority spyware and adware capabilities by exploiting “reminiscence security vulnerabilities” and that MIE is particularly designed to stop that exact assault vector. Apple has been engaged on MIE since 2020, and it is at the moment included in each iPhone 17 mannequin together with the iPhone Air.

In an Apple analysis report on MIE, the corporate stated its new safety function is so strong that it might make creating assault vectors towards the iPhone 17 prohibitively costly. Apple particularly boasts that MIE will “disrupt lots of the handiest exploitation strategies from the final 25 years, and fully redefine the panorama of reminiscence security for Apple merchandise.” Along with Apple’s extra expansive bug bounty program, it is clear that Apple is taking concrete steps to make sure that the iPhone stays much less inclined to malware than another smartphone in the marketplace.