Just over two months ago, Chrome sponsored the <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/pwnium-rewards-for-exploits.html">Pwnium</a> browser hacking competition. We had <a href="http://chrome.blogspot.com/2012/03/pwnium-great-exploits-fast-patches.html">two fantastic submissions</a>, and successfully blocked both exploits within 24 hours of their unveiling. Today, we'd like to offer an inside look into the exploit submitted by <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/03/googles-chrome-browser-on-friday/">Pinkie Pie</a>.

Four bugs chained together to achieve root. There's an upcoming post about the other hack, which involved 10 chained bugs. The chaining makes it more like an accumulator at racing - much harder to achieve anything, even though you cracked the bug.

After some experimenting with what you do and don't need to get the Moog Google Doodle of a few days ago:

In the end, the conclusion is that a ‘modern browser’ according to Google is a browser which sends ‘Chrome’ as its UA string and supports Flash or the Web Audio API.<p>

Can we instead on production sites standardize on something like “this site requires (experimental) features not yet present in your browser” (Thanks @getify for the idea) and a link to instructions on how they can update their browser, or if it is a browser specific feature, information about the feature and why it isn’t yet supported in their browser of choice.

With Brazil loving Chrome, the bad guys are creating extensions which take over your Facebook profile.

You’re probably asking yourself how the bad guys are turning this malicious scheme into money. Well, it’s easy: they have total control of the victim’s profile, so they created a service to sell “Likes” on Facebook, especially focused for companies that want to promote their profiles, gaining more fans and visibility: 1000 likes earn R$ 50.00 (around U$ 27.00)

Of course, to sell the “Likes” they use the profile of the victims.

Be careful when using Facebook. And think twice before installing a Google Chrome extension.

(Thanks @pauljreynolds for the link.)

Very clever, self-mocking campaign by Microsoft. Bird-based communication. Bikes that are hard to ride. Unnecessary beanies. All go through a dip in popularity over time, then reassert. Enjoy, why not?

February:

a new comparison was made ​​by Android Central. The site wanted to know the performance of Google Chrome on Android (currently in beta) from the browser Safari mobile. As shown in the video, the iPhone 4S and Safari are doing pretty good but the Galaxy Nexus wins many times over its competitor.

Chrome indeed looks very fast. The iPhone looks tiny too. (Thanks to @lollygagging for the link.)

This means that Firefox is retaining a slender lead over Google's browser. Last month we speculated that the halt in Chrome's growth might be related to Google's decision to penalize Chrome's positioning in its search results due to an advertising campaign that contravened Google's rules. The sixty day penalty will expire in the next few days, restoring Chrome's prominent positioning in Google searches.

Get your diaries out and watch for those Chrome ads.

A Google spokesperson told Mashable that the new version of Chrome would be based on the desktop browser (as opposed to the Android version).

“Our goal is to be able to offer our users a speedy, simple, secure Chrome experience across all platforms, which includes both the desktop and Metro versions of Windows 8,” the rep said. “To that end we’re in the process of building a Metro version of Chrome along with improving desktop Chrome in Windows 8 such as adding enhanced touch support.”

Not offering Chrome for Windows 8 would basically be leaving money on the table on Google's part.

Andreas Gal is one of the Mozilla team leaders:

I want to land bug 714408 on mozilla-central as soon as I get review for it. It adds hardware-accelerated audio/video decoding support to Gecko using system decoders already present on the system. Android, for example, ships by default with a number of decoders, and in particular for such mobile devices we really have to use these hardware-accelerated decoders for good battery life (and performance).

Looks innocuous; in fact, it's the Firefox team caving in and using system decoders for H.264 and AAC and MP3 (patent-encumbered all), and essentially admitting that the open source WebM video codec is not going to get any traction on the web. Those with long(ish) memories may recall which company said it would drop H.264 support from its browser - but so far hasn't. Read the whole thing; fascinating.

Nifty.

HTML5 demo showing how you get tracked by cookies across various sites. Available as a downloadable add-on for Firefox. More than a little creepy:

If you haven't realized it yet, companies are tracking you across most of the sites you visit daily on the web. It's quite likely that these companies know more about you than your government. Some of them might even know more about you than your best friends.

Hey, Anonymous!

Google has pledged cash prizes totaling $1 million to people who successfully hack its Chrome browser at next week's CanSecWest security conference.

Google will reward winning contestants with prizes of $60,000, $40,000, and $20,000 depending on the severity of the exploits they demonstrate on Windows 7 machines running the browser. Members of the company's security team announced the Pwnium contest on their <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/pwnium-rewards-for-exploits.html">blog on Monday</a>. There is no splitting of winnings, and prizes will be awarded on a first-come-first-served basis until the $1 million threshold is reached.

Google apparently disabled the code when contacted by the Wall Street Journal.

"The Google code was spotted by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer and independently confirmed by a technical adviser to the Journal, Ashkan Soltani, who found that ads on 22 of the top 100 websites installed the Google tracking code on a test computer, and ads on 23 sites installed it on an iPhone browser."

Microsoft is dropping its own DX filters for CSS3 standard alternatives in IE10 (as it began to do with IE9). Essentially, Internet Explorer 10 is looking like the most standards-oriented browser Microsoft has produced since - and perhaps even more than - Internet Explorer 1.0.

The contrast between the installation penetration of Flash and Silverlight is interesting.

"Google's Chrome browser will edge past Mozilla Firefox in a matter of months, web stats poking firms have concluded. Irish company StatCounter foresees the Google browser becoming the second most used browser on the net by December.

"In the StatCounter predictions, relayed to Computer World, Chrome will sweep 26.6% of the market share by December and Firefox will be sitting on 25.3%. Internet Explorer will retain its dominance through user inertia, holding approximately 40%."

Could have knock-on effect on Mozilla's funding: it gets per-search revenues from Google.

Possibly by forking Chromium, Baidu - the search engine that's giant in China - now has its own browser that looks rather like Chrome. Live by the open, get forked by the open.

"While most of the talk for the past month has been [scareware scammers'] move to Mac with fake Finder pop-ups that appear to scan your computer, they haven't stopped innovating on Windows either.<br />
"Their latest scam? They detect your user-agent string from your web browser and display a fake Firefox security alert if you are using the Mozilla Firefox web browser."