The man who managed to briefly buy the web domain Google.com has received a reward from the search giant.
A bypass of the Google.comallowed a US student, Sanmay Ved, to purchase it on September 29.
This gave him control of the world's most famous domain, Google.com, for about a minute, until Google canceled the transaction.
So Mr. Ved received a cash reward for identifying the bug, which he has decided to donate to charity.
Google declined to comment on the story.
Mr. Ved detailed his experience in a LinkedIn post, saying he had been monitoring Google domains for some time, having previously worked at the search giant. Mr. Ved is currently an MBA student at a US college.
In the early morning hours of September 29th, he noticed that there was a notice next to the name Google.com, stating that it was for sale, while browsing Google's domain selling pages.
He used a credit card to pay $12 to purchase google.com and received emails confirming that he was the owner.
This was followed by a cancellation message sent by the sales department stating that he could not have Google.com, but of course he would be refunded his money.
What emerged is that Mr. Ved essentially identified a vulnerability in the domain purchase system and gave Google's security team a "job".
Mr. Ved decided to donate the money to an Indian educational institution and in response, Google doubled the reward.
Well done to both of you!
