Microsoft offers $100,000 to hack its custom Linux OS

A three-month challenge welcomes hackers to take on Azure Sphere OS.

Microsoft gives hackers up to $100,000 if they violate the protection of the company’s unique Linux OS. Last year, the software giant developed a Linux portable and tailor-made version for its Azure Sphere OS, which is designed to run on different chips for its IoT network. The OS is built for this platform, which means that simple utilities and applications run in a sandbox segregated for safety purposes.

Now Microsoft requires hackers to check Azure Sphere OS protection and pay up to $100,000 if the Pluton protection subsystem or Safe World sandbox was broken. The bug bounty scheme is part of a testing project running from 1 June to 31 August. “We will offer a reward of up to $100,000 over the plan duration for unique situations in Azure Sphere Security Research Competition,” states Sylvie Liu, Microsoft’s Risk Response Center Risk Director.

MICROSOFT Needs A SECURITY RESEARCHERS ON THE Competition The competition is the Azure Sphere OS itself, and not a cloud-based component that already has Azure Bounty Prize. Microsoft is directly working to try to breach the Linux Kernel encryption with a consortium of security researchers. There are no physical attacks, but participants should apply here to be part of the competition.

At the Create Developer Conference last year, Azure Sphere was revealed and it’s still fairly new. Organizations like Starbucks are implementing Azure Sphere to protect the storage facilities, which provides the data for each Espresso shot with data on size, coffee temperature, and water quality.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sees IoT devices as a core region for the firm, which earlier this year described the cloud market as Microsoft’s largest hardware group. Nadella is seeking thousands of IoT apps that experts expect the next decade will have. Azure Sphere is essential to maintaining and controlling these apps, and part of Microsoft’s growing quest toward an environment that goes beyond Windows to cloud computing.