Considering the prices of computer vulnerabilities, Android seems more secure than iOS

That's it: for one of the first times, it would seem more difficult to get into the Android operating system than that of Apple. Zerodium, a leading breach broker-dealer, has just confirmed that pricing for its Android exploits costs more than iOS, although overall market prices have risen exponentially in recent years. both OSes.

Among the other computer vulnerabilities that have seen their exchange prices increase, instant messaging applications reportedly offer very high prices. At the top of the list, WhatsApp would exceed a million dollars in reward, to anyone who finds an “exploit”, that is to say the computer code allowing a vulnerability to be exploited.

Rarer computer flaws in Android?

It is a market in its own right, where products are exchanged todaysometimes several million dollars. Computer flaws, these software vulnerabilities allowing external actions to be carried out, sometimes even without users being forced to do anything (“zero click” exploit chain).

Zerodium, one of the main companies involved in purchasing “exploits” (computer programs allowing the exploitation of vulnerabilities), has just confirmed that prices for Android are now more expensive than those for iOS. Thus, the new prices mention that a “zero click” exploit chain on Android would today sell for $2.5 million, or $500,000 less than those on iOS, at $2 million.

But then, why would the price curve exerted on Android vulnerabilities have exceeded that of iOS? According to the CEO of Zerodium,“Android security improves with each new version of the operating system thanks to Google security teams(le « Project Zero »Editor’s note)and Samsung. It therefore became very difficult and tedious to develop complete exploit chains for Android, and it is even more difficult to develop zero click exploits requiring no user interaction..

For its part, Apple would be the opposite, accumulating a growing number of exploits, and the price of the latter would therefore see themselves falling. In its press release, Zerodium also explained that“the 0day market is so flooded with iOS exploits that we recently started refusing some of them”.

iOS suffers from its iMessage application

In just one year, the price of an Android exploit program has increased twelve times. But where prices are noticeably increasing concerns instant messaging applications. Leading the way, WhatsApp and iMessage see zero-click exploit chains grow to $1.5 million. For programs requiring user action, prices range from $1 million for WhatsApp, and $500,000 for iMessage.

Apple's exploit price drop largely relates to iMessage vulnerabilities.“Over the past 12 months, we have seen an increase in the number of iOS exploit chains, primarily Safari and iMessage chains, developed and sold by researchers around the world”, explained the management of Zerodium. Not sure that this price drop will be very beneficial for Apple,who also sees the image of their cybersecurity drop.