2017 Android Security Rewards

Posted by Mayank Jain and Scott Roberts, Android Security team

[Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog]

Two years ago, we launched the Android Security Rewards program. In its second year, we've seen great progress. We received over 450 qualifying vulnerability reports from researchers and the average pay per researcher jumped by 52.3%. On top of that, the total Android Security Rewards payout doubled to $1.1 million dollars. Since it launched, we've rewarded researchers over $1.5 million dollars.

Here are some of the highlights from the Android Security Rewards program's second year:

• There were no payouts for the top reward for a complete remote exploit chain leading to TrustZone or Verified Boot compromise, our highest award amount possible.
• We paid 115 individuals with an average of $2,150 per reward and $10,209 per researcher.
• We paid our top research team, C0RE Team, over $300,000 for 118 vulnerability reports.
• We paid 31 researchers $10,000 or more.

Thank you to all the amazing researchers who submitted complete vulnerability reports to us last year.

Improvements to Android Security Rewards program

We’re constantly working to improve the Android Security Rewards program and today we’re making a few changes to all vulnerability reports filed after June 1, 2017.

Because every Android release includes more security protections and no researcher has claimed the top reward for an exploit chains in 2 years, we’re excited to increase our top-line payouts for these exploits.

• Rewards for a remote exploit chain or exploit leading to TrustZone or Verified Boot compromise increase from $50,000 to $200,000.
• Rewards for a remote kernel exploit increase from $30,000 to $150,000.

In addition to rewarding for vulnerabilities, we continue to work with the broad and diverse Android ecosystem to protect users from issues reported through our program. We collaborate with manufacturers to ensure that these issues are fixed on their devices through monthly security updates. Over 100 device models have a majority of their deployed devices running a security update from the last 90 days. This table shows the models with a majority of deployed devices running a security update from the last two months:

Manufacturer	Device
BlackBerry	PRIV
Fujitsu	F-01J
General Mobile	GM5 Plus d, GM5 Plus, General Mobile 4G Dual, General Mobile 4G
Gionee	A1
Google	Pixel XL, Pixel, Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 9
LGE	LG G6, V20, Stylo 2 V, GPAD 7.0 LTE
Motorola	Moto Z, Moto Z Droid
Oppo	CPH1613, CPH1605
Samsung	Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S7 Active, Galaxy S6 Active, Galaxy S5 Dual SIM, Galaxy C9 Pro, Galaxy C7, Galaxy J7, Galaxy On7 Pro, Galaxy J2, Galaxy A8, Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
Sharp	Android One S1, 507SH
Sony	Xperia XA1, Xperia X
Vivo	Vivo 1609, Vivo 1601, Vivo Y55

Source: Google, May 29, 2017

Thank you to everyone who helped make Android safer and stronger in the past year. Together, we made a huge investment in security research that helps Android users everywhere. If you want to get involved to make next year even better, check out our detailed Program Rules. For tips on how to submit complete reports, see Bug Hunter University.