Google Increases Bug Award to $20,000

The company said that it will now award $20,000 for any bug that allows code execution on its "production systems". Google will also pay $10,000 for SQL injection bugs as well as for "certain types" of information disclosure, authentication, and authorization bypass bugs. The previous top reward of $3,133.70 now applies to "many types of XSS, XSRF, and other high-impact flaws in highly sensitive applications."

"For example, while every flaw deserves appropriate attention, we are likely to issue a higher reward for a cross-site scripting vulnerability in Google Wallet than one in Google Art Project, where the potential risk to user data is significantly smaller," Adam Mein and Michal Zalewski wrote in a post on Google's Security Blog.

Security researchers can submit vulnerability reports by email via security@google.com.

Douglas Perry
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.