Bengaluru Techie Wins $6,500 For Finding Critical Uber Bug

Sep. 17, 2019

Bengaluru-based cybersecurity researcher, Anand Prakash, was awarded $6,500 (around Rs 4.6 lakh) by ride-hailing giant, Uber, as part of the company’s bug bounty program after discovering a critical flaw in the flagship app of the San Fransisco-based firm. Uber has reportedly already fixed the ‘account-takeover-vulnerability’ that could have potentially allowed attackers to take over any other user’s Uber account, including those of partners and Uber Eats users.

The bug was present in the API request function of the Uber app and, according to the company, was immediately fixed on being reported. The company also said that over $2 million was paid to more than 600 researchers around the world, including many in India, as part of its bug bounty program over the years. Another Indian researcher, Chennai-based Laxman Muthiyah, hadrecently won $30,000as a part of Facebook’s bug bounty program after spotting a flaw in the company’s popular photo-sharing platform, Instagram.

A graduate in computer science from Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, he had earlier received $5,000 from Uber for booking a free ride and $4,700 from Tinder. He has also worked with the Bengaluru-based foodtech startup, Freshmenu, to make the platform more secure. He has also participated in bug bounties for GitHub, Nokia, Soundcloud, Dropbox and PayPal in the past.

With inputs from IANS

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