Chapter 55: Cybertron Studio (Part 1) (Begging for recommendations, collections, and rewards)

Chen Yuan is an employee at the China branch of Apple, and his job is to be responsible for the review of vulnerability reports for the iOS operating system.

In Chen Yuan's view, his superiors had truly arranged a leisurely job for him.

Yes, as the world's premier giant of consumer electronics, Apple not only possesses powerful hardware design capabilities, but it is also absolutely the most outstanding in software development.

The iOS system is undoubtedly the best manifestation of Apple's software development capabilities; although it was born almost at the same time as Google's Android system, in terms of performance and security, the iOS system almost completely crushes the Android system, becoming the world's most popular mobile operating system.

Of course, no product is perfect, and Chen Yuan also knows that the iOS system does indeed have vulnerabilities, so in addition to his own company having a dedicated team responsible for detecting iOS system vulnerabilities, Apple, like foreign internet giants such as Facebook and Google, has also launched its own vulnerability reporting reward program to the public—the "White Knight Project."

It is just that the strength of Chinese civilian technology enthusiasts in the area of vulnerability detection is not a small gap compared to Europe and America.

Since the "White Knight Project" also began to be implemented in China in the year 2015, only forty or fifty iOS system vulnerabilities have been reported and discovered by the Chinese side to date, and most of them are just some strange little vulnerabilities that do not affect system stability.

By comparison, there were seven or eight high-risk vulnerabilities reported abroad just last year.

Therefore, Chen Yuan's job is practically no different from being a freeloader; apart from being busy for a while when the complaints department forwards vulnerability report emails, he spends most of his time daydreaming or playing small games.

And so, Chen Yuan clicked on chess for the third time today, intending to try out a chess manual he had just found online.

Although the company has regulations strictly prohibiting playing games during work hours, for simple games that come with the computer like cards or chess, even if a supervisor sees it when they aren't busy, they usually just turn a blind eye.

"I say, aren't you bored? Playing chess with the computer every day, aren't you sick of it?"

The person daydreaming on the side is another employee at Apple's China branch responsible for reviewing iOS system vulnerability reports, named Fu Chun.

Because the company often doesn't receive a single vulnerability report in ten days or half a month, the China branch only arranged for the two of them to be reviewers.

Now it seems that, in fact, two people are too many!

Chen Yuan rolled his eyes at him, "It's still better than you secretly downloading movies; be careful about getting caught and getting scolded again?"

Fu Chun chuckled: "The hundred-megabit fiber optic in the office is much better than the four-megabit one at my house. Anyway, since I'm idle, I might as well download a few ultra-clear movies so I can watch them when I go home tonight!"

Chen Yuan rolled his eyes, but since he was playing a small game that came with the system and didn't need the internet at all, he just pretended not to see it; after all, they were both in the same boat, bored every single day.

Just as he clicked on the chessboard, because he was the red side, Chen Yuan was about to make the first move to see how amazing the so-called Ming Dynasty endgame manual he had just seen was.

Suddenly, he saw a work processing prompt pop up on the official website backend maintenance software on the right side of his computer.

Chen Yuan was stunned, and he soon realized it was a vulnerability report email forwarded by the complaints department.

He immediately perked up, "Yo, it seems a vulnerability report has come in. Are you reviewing it or am I?"

"You take a look first, confirm it's really a vulnerability report before saying anything."

Fu Chun saw it too, but his computer was busy secretly downloading a movie, so he said without even turning his head.

Chen Yuan nodded, closed the chess game he had just started, and immediately clicked on the vulnerability report email; after a quick scan, Chen Yuan's eyebrows twitched, "Discovered 17 vulnerabilities in the iOS system, and claims to have more in hand—they really dare to say that!"

"Pfft!"

Upon hearing this, Fu Chun burst out laughing, and couldn't help but get up and lean over to tease him, chiming in: "Is it for real? Come, come, let me see too, who has such great ability..."

He hadn't even seen the reporter's information yet, but the quick-handed Chen Yuan had already downloaded the folder attached to the email and opened it.

Fu Chun then leaned his head in closer, and after looking at the detailed vulnerability analysis Chen Yuan had opened, his expression changed slightly.

"Using the search function allows you to see deleted text messages... hmm, this vulnerability does indeed exist..."

Apple has its own system vulnerability detection team, but when some vulnerabilities in new versions are discovered, unless they have already been reported, they choose to remain silent and quietly fix them in the next version; after all, Apple wouldn't be stupid enough to slap its own face.

However, for convenience, Apple also periodically updates technical personnel specifically responsible for this area internally with newly discovered vulnerabilities so that their technical team can perform maintenance.

As it happens, Fu Chun just happened to remember this specific vulnerability newly confirmed by the U. S. headquarters.

Chen Yuan nodded in response, as he was indeed aware of this already-discovered vulnerability.

The two of them became serious, reading through it word by word and line by line, their brows furrowing in unison.

"Five of the vulnerabilities have already been detected by headquarters; these reports are correct. As for the rest, although it's not yet certain, by extension, the probability of them also being correct is very high..."

After Chen Yuan finished speaking, he bent down and took several Apple phones and testing devices specifically used for detection out of the drawer under his desk and placed them on the desktop.

Without needing him to say more, Fu Chun turned off his computer and walked over to help.

The two of them busied themselves back and forth, comparing and testing for a good while. After finally confirming that all these vulnerabilities were true, Chen Yuan was dazed for a moment, then he immediately took a flash drive out of the drawer and copied the organized report and test records onto it.

After finishing, he stood up and said to Fu Chun: "I'm going to the copy room to print the documents; Fu Chun, you go call the supervisor first."

Fu Chun nodded with a serious face; to have so many vulnerabilities reported by someone all at once, and for them all to be proven authentic.

This matter, even if their supervisor came, would likely make them break out in a cold sweat before continuing to report the situation further up.

If the other party really still had more iOS system vulnerabilities in their hands, then in the end, it might not just be the China branch sending a senior executive to contact the other party personally; perhaps the headquarters might even send someone over from the United States to take charge of this matter personally.

However, these things no longer had anything to do with the two of them.

"Since when did such a brilliant tech expert emerge in China?"

Before leaving the room, Fu Chun couldn't help but look back at the computer screen at the reporter's information left in the report file.

"Cybertron Studio? A testing agency?"

Carrying some doubts, Fu Chun shook his head and followed closely behind Chen Yuan out of the office, heading toward the supervisor's office.

PS:

1. I've been put in the "small dark room" (writer's block/stuck), haven't been able to get out all afternoon.

2. The real-world arc will end within these two days.