A cyber security student, Ryan Pickren, reported Apple a Mac webcam hack that can leave Mac devices open to hackers. After confirming and fixing the issue, Apple rewarded the student $100,500 from the company’s bug bounty program.
This hack exploits a series of issues with Safari and iCloud. Any malicious website can use these flaws to target users on Mac devices. It could give attackers full access to all web-based accounts, from iCloud to PayPal along with permission to use the microphone, camera, and screen sharing.
Ryan Pickren has also written a complete blog post detailing how this hack worked. if you are interested in learning, you can read that blog post.
Apple has now fixed the issue and rewarded Ryan Pickren for reporting the issue. The company has also not talked about the issue publicly and we don’t know if this hack was exploited by cybercriminals.
Apple has a bug bounty program where it awards security researchers bounty for reporting security issues in different Apple products. The company can officially award up to $1 million depending on the bug. There is a list of maximum sums per category of security issue reported.
