Microsoft Won’t Patch IE8 Before Pwn2Own Hacking Contest

Posted 03/06/2011 at 10:41am | by Justin Kerr

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Microsoft is either supremely confident in it’s latest revision of Internet Explorer 8, or they’ve already come to terms with the reality that if you put enough hackers in one room, no amount of patching will save them. Either way the software giant announced on March 4th that it wouldn’t be issuing any security patches before the annual Pwn2Own hacking event which runs from March 9th to 11th in Vancouver Canada. If this holds true, they will be the only major browser contender to do so.

The targeted browsers include Internet Explorer 8, Apple’s Safari 5, Google Chrome 9, and Mozilla’s Firefox 3.6. On the mobile front hackers will also be looking at Windows Phone 7, the iPhone 4, Blackberry OS, and the Nexus S running Android.

Traditionally Internet Explorer and Safari have been the first to fall in these events, with Google Chrome holding it’s own to the bitter end. It will be interesting to see if this holds true this year as well, but it’s a bit disappointing to not see Microsoft putting any extra effort into battening down the hatches before the event.

The timing of the contest seems a bit off this year with IE9, Firefox 4, and Chrome 10 all on the horizon, and unfortunately, completely off limits to the contestants. It will still give us a strong indication as to which companies have been focusing on security, but won’t hold relevancy for long. Over $125,000 in cash & prizes are up for grabs, so expect the competition to be intense.