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Hackers Earn Over $1 Million at Pwn2Own Exploit Contest

Security researchers raked in more than $1 million in prizes at this year’s CanSecWest Pwn2Own software exploitation contest.

Security researchers participating in this year’s Pwn2Own software exploitation contest banked more than $1 million in prizes over three days, organizers announced over the weekend.

The highest reward on the first day of the contest was earned for a TOCTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) race condition exploit used to take full control of a Tesla vehicle. Researchers at French offensive security firm Synacktiv pocketed a $100,000 cash prize and ownership of a Tesla Model 3 car.

On the same day, a two-bug chain against Microsoft SharePoint was awarded a $100,000 prize and a six-bug logic chain targeting Adobe Reader earned hackers a $50,000 prize.

Vulnerabilities in Oracle VirtualBox ($40,000), Apple macOS ($40,000), Windows 11 ($30,000), and Ubuntu (two bugs, two $30,000 prizes) were also rewarded.

The first day of the contest ended with 12 zero-days being disclosed and $375,000 in cash and a car awarded in prizes.

The highest prize of the second day ($150,000) was once again earned for a Tesla hack, once again by the Synacktiv team. The exploit qualified for a Tier 2 award and the team earned $250,000.

Synacktiv emerged as the winner of Pwn2Own Vancouver 2023, earning a total of $530,000 and a car over the course of the three-day event.

VirtualBox was hacked twice on the second day of the competition, for $80,000 and $40,000 prizes, respectively. Microsoft Teams ($75,000) and Ubuntu ($30,000) were also hacked.

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The second day ended with $475,000 awarded for 10 unique zero-days.

The STAR Labs team earned the highest prizes on the third day of the competition, one for a VMware Workstation exploit ($80,000) and another for a Microsoft Teams exploit ($75,000).

On the same day, three prizes of $30,000 were earned for Ubuntu hacks and another one for a Windows 11 exploit.

Related: Hackers Earn $180,000 for ICS Exploits at Pwn2Own Miami 2023

Related: Netgear Neutralizes Pwn2Own Exploits With Last-Minute Nighthawk Router Patches

Related: Pwn2Own Offers $100,000 for Home Office Hacking Scenario

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

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