Google coughs up "elite" cash for Chrome flaw

Google has awarded its first "elite" bounty to a security researcher for finding a "critical" bug in its Chrome browser.

Sergey Glazunov bagged the US$3,133.70 Chromium Security Reward for discovering a "stale pointer" related to the browser's speech handling, and a further US$1,337 for finding a pointer flaw.

"Critical bugs are harder to come by in Chrome, but Sergey has done it," Google's Chrome blogger Jason Kelsey said.

No stranger to Google's cash for bug program, Glazunov has previously been awarded for finding several other lower order bugs.

Google bumped up its top bounty fee from US$1,337 for the Chrome vulnerability program in July.

Last November it also created a separate scheme to encourage researchers to find flaws in its web properties, such as its search engine, YouTube and Blogger.