On the first day of Pwn2Own Automotive 2025, security researchers exploited 16 unique zero-days and collected $382,750 in cash awards. Fuzzware.io is leading the competition after hacking the Autel MaxiCharger and Phoenix Contact CHARX SEC-3150 electric vehicle chargers using a stack-based buffer overflow and an origin validation error bug. This earned them $50,000 and 10 Master of Pwn points. Sina Kheirkhah of Summoning Team also earned $91,750 and 9.25 Master of Pwn points after hacking the Ubiquiti and Phoenix Contact CHARX SEC-3150 EV chargers using a hard-coded cryptographic key bug and a combo of three zero-days (one of them previously known). Synacktiv Team is in third place on the leaderboard and took home $57,500 after successfully demoing a bug in the OCPP protocol to hack the ChargePoint Home Flex (Model CPH50) using signal manipulation through the connector, Security researchers from PHP Hooligans also successfully hacked a fully patched Autel charger using a heap-based buffer overflow and earned $50,000, while the Viettel Cyber Security team collected $20,000 after obtaining code execution on the Kenwood In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) using an OS command injection zero-day. After the zero-day vulnerabilities are exploited and reported during Pwn2Own, vendors have 90 days to develop and release security patches before TrendMicro's Zero Day Initiative publicly discloses them.
The Pwn2Own Automotive 2025 hacking competition, which focuses on automotive technologie...