White hat hackers earned $1,047,000 for 76 unique vulnerabilities at Pwn2Own Automotive 2026, the automotive-focused hacking competition organized this week by Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) in Japan.
The winner of the event, the Fuzzware.io team, earned a total of $215,500 for its exploits. The team received the highest individual reward: $60,000 for an Alpitronic HYC50 EV charger exploit delivered through the charging gun. ZDI described it as “the first public exploit of a supercharger”.
Hacks targeting Autel and Phoenix Contact EV chargers earned Pwn2Own Automotive 2026 participants $50,000 each.
Exploits aimed at ChargePoint, Alpitronic, and Grizzl-E chargers earned $40,000 each.
One noteworthy exploit involved chaining three vulnerabilities to hack Automotive Grade Linux, earning a researcher $40,000.
Another exploit highlighted by ZDI targeted Tesla’s infotainment system. Researchers received $35,000 for a full hack executed by simply plugging in a USB stick.
Sony, Kenwood, and Alpine infotainment system, and Alpitronic, Grizzl-E, Autel, Phoenix Contact, and ChargePoint charger exploits earned researchers thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars.
At last year’s Pwn2Own Automotive, participants received a total of $886,000.
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