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Google launched a new bug bounty program called kvmCTF to enhance the security of its Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor. This program offers up to $250,000 as a reward to security researchers who successfully achieve a full virtual machine (VM) escape exploit.
KVM, an open-source hypervisor, is important in consumer and enterprise settings. It has been developed for over 17 years and is used in Android and Google Cloud platform.
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The reward tiers are the following:
Relative memory read: $10,000
Denial of service: $20,000
Arbitrary memory read: $50,000
Relative memory write: $50,000
Arbitrary memory write: $100,000
Full VM escape: $250,000
Like Google’s kernelCTF vulnerability reward program, which targets Linux kernel security flaws, kvmCTF focuses on VM-reachable bugs in the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor.
The objective is to carry out successful attacks from a guest to a host. No rewards will be given for vulnerabilities in QEMU or from the host to KVM.
Researchers in the program can use exploits to capture flags in a controlled lab environment. The focus is on zero-day vulnerabilities, not known ones. The kvmCTF runs on Google’s Bare Metal Solution (BMS) for top security.
“Participants will be able to reserve time slots to access the guest VM and attempt to perform a guest-to-host attack. The goal of the attack must be to exploit a zero day vulnerability in the KVM subsystem of the host kernel,” said Google software engineer Marios Pomonis.
“If successful, the attacker will obtain a flag that proves their accomplishment in exploiting the vulnerability. The severity of the attack will determine the reward amount, which will be based on the reward tier system explained below. All reports will be thoroughly evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”
