Hacking Contests: See No Evil, Hear No Evil

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Hacking Contests: See No Evil, Hear No Evil

Posted by Jordan Wiens on May 11, 2007

Can plugging a security vulnerability ever be a bad thing? We'd argue no; others, including Gartner, disagree.

At issue are hacking contests, where a company posts a bounty to encourage people to uncover software vulnerabilities, so they can ultimately be closed. Gartner recently pointed to two hacking contests--a Mac one at CanSecWest and an event that discovered an Apple QuickTime flaw--and said "conducting vulnerability research in a public venue is risky and could lead to mishandling or treating too lightly these vulnerabilities."

As someone who has participated in such contests, I disagree. When a vulnerability is found and publicly announced, what's the downside? The hole is there regardless--indeed, the event uncovers it. How is this more dangerous than not running the contest and hoping the bad guys wouldn't have found it first? --Jordan Wiens, jwiens@nwc.com

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