Microsoft offers prizes for technology against memory exploits

Microsoft has launched a competition in which participants must develop a method to prevent abuse of leaks in Windows memory management. The winner can count on a prize of $ 200,000.

Microsoft has initiated the Blue Hat Prize baptized. Anyone who wants to compete for the prizes must develop a method to counteract memory exploits. Examples of potential issues developers can focus on are return oriented programming and exploits that address space layout randomization try to get around. Each submission must consist of a zip file of maximum 2MB, containing an executable demonstrating the technique. In addition, a document of no more than ten pages must describe which problem is being tackled and which algorithms are used.

The person who develops the most innovative method can count on the top prize of $ 200,000. Second place is awarded with $50,000 and third place is awarded for an MSDN subscription worth $10,000. The competition will run from August 3, 2011 to April 1, 2012. The winner will be announced during the Black Hat USA 2012 security conference.

From the requirements It can be seen that the winner automatically grants a worldwide, free license to his technique to Microsoft, but the copyrights remain in the hands of the developers.