Security experts participating in the Apple Device Security Research (SRD) program may soon receive their hacker-friendly iPhones. Conformable MacRumors, the technology giant notified the first batch of participants that their SRD phones will be sent immediately. Program iPhones behave like their standard counterparts, but give security researchers more access so that participants can run any tools they need to find vulnerabilities.
Apple first announced the program in July “to help improve security for all iOS users.” Researchers will be able to keep the SRD phones they provided for 12 months, but it can be renewed if they want to continue participating after the end of the year. They are required to report any vulnerabilities they find, test, or validate on the search device to Apple or the developer if the bug is in a third-party code. That being said, participants can still participate in Apple’s bug reward program, which has payments up to $ 1 million. They just need to make sure they don’t use their SRD iPhones for any aspect of the research they do for the special vulnerability they transmit.