Hackers have defeated Google Chrome for the first time in an annual competition to test the security of the most popular web browser.
A group of French hackers were able to bypass Google security features to gain control of a Windows PC in less than five minutes at the Pwn2own
competition in Canada.
Chrome had stood undefeated in the 2011 competition but a French firm, Vupen defeated it this time.
“We wanted to show that Chrome was not unbreakable. Last year, we saw a lot of headlines that no one could hack Chrome. We wanted to make sure it was the first to fall this year,” The Telegraph quoted firm’s research head Chaouki Bekrar, as saying.
Bekrar said his team had worked for six weeks ahead of the competition to explore vulnerabilities.
He added that his company had also devised a procedure to hack into Firefox and Internet Explorer, but wanted to first demonstrate that Chrome was not invincible.
Vupen had earlier used two previously unknown vulnerabilities to beat Chrome's security, which is perceived to be stronger than rivals Firefox and Internet Explorer because of its use of “sandboxing”.
Vupen said it would keep details of how it bypassed Google's sandbox technology private "for our customers".