Tech company will pay you as much as $200k for finding bugs

12:25 - 08 August 2016

Apple CEO touts future technology amid iPhone worries

It's not all peaches though. People who find these bugs will have to provide a proof-of-concept in the latest iOS before they can be eligible for a reward.

If you are one of those geeks that like to fiddle around with stuff and find vulnerabilities, read carefully.

Google, Microsoft, and Facebook all have the bug bounty programs which rewards people who discover bugs in their software, something Apple has refused to do. Until now.

Starting later this year, Apple has announced that it will be starting a bug bounty program. It will start small but it will offer bounties for discovering bugs in a small range of iCloud and iDevice bugs.

Apple's head of security engineering and architecture, IvanKrsticat, made the announcement at the recently concluded Black Hat conference.

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Here is the full list of bounties available:

Secure boot firmware components: Up to $200,000.
Extraction of confidential material protected by the Secure Enclave: Up to $100,000.
Execution of arbitrary code with kernel privileges: Up to $50,000.
Unauthorized access to iCloud account data on Apple servers: Up to $50,000.
Access from a sandboxed process to user data outside of that sandbox: Up to $25,000.

Inasmuch as there are given rates for each category of vulnerability, Apple will determine the exact reward amount based on several factors which include but is not limited to: the clarity of the vulnerability report; the novelty of the problem and the likelihood of user exposure; and the degree to which the vulnerability can be exploited.

Apple's bug bounty program will kick off in September, 2016.