Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Why did the 2016 Pwn2Own hacking contest exclude Firefox for lacking security?

  • 4
  • 4
  • 6 views
  • Nzaghachi ikpeazụ nke James

more options

I read today, here (http://www.eweek.com/security/pwn2own-hacking-contest-returns-as-joint-hpe-trend-micro-effort.html), that the hacking contest named above excluded Firefox from the contest because they consider Mozilla to be "not serious" about security in 2016. What do they mean? Will Mozilla address this, or is Firefox a dying creature?

I read today, here (http://www.eweek.com/security/pwn2own-hacking-contest-returns-as-joint-hpe-trend-micro-effort.html), that the hacking contest named above excluded Firefox from the contest because they consider Mozilla to be "not serious" about security in 2016. What do they mean? Will Mozilla address this, or is Firefox a dying creature?

All Replies (4)

more options

Mozilla has been very serious about security fixes in Firefox and much more open about it (unlike other browsers) as you can see at https://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox/

So one could say other browsers were not serious about security if they were hiding things about them over the years.

Hmm people are mistakenly thinking Firefox is too easy or must be lacking and not serious about security now.

Edeziri site na James

more options

there were a limited number of targets at the event - why they were chosen this way, you'd have to inquire at the event's organisers as we cannot speak for them... http://community.hpe.com/t5/Security-Research/Zero-Day-Initiative-announces-Pwn2Own-2016/ba-p/6831571

mozilla is taking security serious of course.

more options

Thank you both for your replies. I've read that Google has pulled its funding of Firefox and recently that Firefox's share of the browser market has dropped as low as twenty percent lately. Reading the comment at the hacking conference made me wonder how healthy Firefox is at this point.

more options

It is not a matter of Google pulling funding but Mozilla wanting to get away from what Google is. So Google is no longer the global default search engine in Firefox. Yahoo has been the default in en-US version of Firefox since 34.0.

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/11/19/promoting-choice-and-innovation-on-the-web/