What’s the best way to make security even more powerful? By learning how to break into it, and that’s just what hackers have done with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.
Thursday marked an exciting day for attendees at the Power of Community conference in Seoul. Pwnfest 2016 is an event is where hackers present their exploits to break into major platforms. Both Junghoo Lee, a South Korean hacker, and Beijing’s Qihoo 360 team broke into Edge’s SYSTEM-level. Lee’s constructed exploit even broke through in just eighteen seconds. The feat earned them each $140,000.
Of course, it wasn’t necessarily that easy. According to the article, Microsoft’s patch released just on Tuesday threw hackers for a loop right before Pwnfest. In fact, the Qihoo 360 team admitted that three out of four of their vulnerabilities were fixed. But that still didn’t stop the teams from fighting their way through the security.
The event is still underway where hackers are testing their exploits against other major platforms such as Google Pixel and Apple Safari. As The Register notes, the hackers should be expected to succeed. Once the vulnerabilities are found, hackers share their findings with the vendors meaning Microsoft Edge will be much more secure thanks to the competition.
