10 hours later, Google Patches Chrome to Plug Pwnium 2 Security Hole

http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/10/10/in-less-than-24-hours-google-patches-chrome-to-plug-security-hole-found-at-its-pwnium-2-event/

by Quekster • 14 years ago

102 25 14 years ago

thenextweb.com

semenko• 14 years ago

Direct link to the Chromium blog post: http://blog.chromium.org/2012/10/pwnium-2-results-and-wrap-u...

The commit that closes the exploit: http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome?view=rev&revision=...

afhof• 14 years ago

Looking at the diff, it doesn't appear anything was really fixed, just removed. I guess that explains the quick turn around time on the exploit.

eranation• 14 years ago

Can someone please explain the exploit and how it was fixed?

bvdbijl• 14 years ago

It seems there was a bug in some profiling code (that was left behind?). This code made it possible to write arbitrary files on the system, which they fixed by removing the profiling code. This is the commit that fixes that: http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome?view=rev&revision=...

The SVG exploit was in Webkit, don't know the exact problem with that

misterS• 14 years ago

Now there's a bright mind with (possibly) a more-than-good job offer.

dguido2• 14 years ago

What makes you think he doesn't already have a job? He's going by a handle because participation in the contest would get him fired from his job.

suyash• 14 years ago

misterS might be suggesting more job offers for Pinkie Pie

WalterGR• 14 years ago

Yup. To add a citation:

"The tall teen, who asked to be identified only by his handle 'Pinkie Pie' because his employer did not authorize his activity, spent just a week and a half to find the vulnerabilities and craft the exploit, achieving stability only in the last hours of the contest."

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/zero-days-for-chrom...

ChuckMcM• 14 years ago

Say what you want but I really appreciate the fast turnaround from Google on this. Its excellent that they do this sort of thing, and that they have the mechanism to push the patches quickly.

tomrod• 14 years ago

I tell you, this is one of the biggest selling points to me about products with rapid deployment such as Ubuntu utilities, Firefox, Chrome, and the like. Fixing any bug and pushing an update in hours upon discovery is just awesome. We live in great times.

TwoBit• 14 years ago

Chrome and FireFox patches take hours to be released. IE patches take weeks to be released. Can somebody explain why?

mkarttic• 14 years ago

no. and everyone knows why. Please stop flaming IE, its gotten old.

avbor2• 14 years ago

Honestly, I don't know why. Is it for stability reasons?

Mythbusters• 14 years ago

Guessing here but I think they have different SLAs. Microsoft probably spends more time testing and releasing something akin to the chrome stable release channel.

bookworm_• 14 years ago

If I'm going to use Webkit, I'd rather use something simple, like midori. Standard issue on the Raspberry Pi.

Chrome complexity? Browser controlled by commercial entity that sells web ad space? No thanks.

evmar• 14 years ago

Midori, because it uses WebKit, was surely vulnerable to the same SVG vulnerability and has no sandbox.

yeahriight• 14 years ago

Can you disable auto-loading of images in Chrome? If yes, how easy is that to do? It's very easy in midori.

I will always choose simplicity over complexity if I'm concerned about security. Chrome is very complex.

jzelinskie• 14 years ago

You mention that Chrome is run by an ad company, but midori lacks decent privacy tools and leaves you much more exposed than Chrome which can run extensions like Adblock Plus and Ghostery. For better or for worse, the web is a complex place and using a simple browser doesn't decrease the complexity outside of your own computer.

10 hours later, Google Patches Chrome to Plug Pwnium 2 Security Hole

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