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Hackers earned over $400,000 in prizes on the first day of Pwn2Own Toronto 2023, according to the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI). The largest listed Day 1 award was $60,000 to Team Orca of Sea Security for demonstrating a two-bug exploit chain against a Sonos Era 100 smart speaker.
What happened on the first day?
ZDI’s October 24, 2023 results report recorded successful demonstrations against a range of consumer and small-office devices, including phones, network storage, printers, a surveillance camera, and a smart speaker. ZDI’s headline figure was “over $400,000 in prizes”; it was not an exact $400,000 total. See ZDI’s Day 1 results.
- Network camera: Synology BC500
- Network storage: WD My Cloud Pro Series PR4100 and QNAP TS-464
- Phones: Xiaomi 13 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S23
- Printers: Canon imageCLASS MF753Cdw and Lexmark CX331adwe
- Smart speaker: Sonos Era 100
The results log also included failed attempts and “bug collisions,” when a submitted exploit relied on a vulnerability already known to ZDI. Those entries are distinct from newly successful demonstrations.
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Team Orca of Sea Security received $60,000 for a two-bug chain against the Sonos Era 100, combining an out-of-bounds read with a use-after-free. Other listed Day 1 awards included $50,000 to Pentest Limited for a Samsung Galaxy S23 demonstration and $40,000 apiece for attempts against the Xiaomi 13 Pro, WD My Cloud Pro Series PR4100, and QNAP TS-464. ZDI’s results page lists additional smaller awards, successful attempts, and collisions.
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What was Pwn2Own Toronto?
Pwn2Own Toronto 2023 was a ZDI-organized vulnerability demonstration contest held October 24–27, 2023. Its consumer-focused categories included mobile phones, network storage, surveillance systems, home automation hubs, printers, smart speakers, and Google devices. The SOHO Smashup challenge involved compromising a router and then pivoting to another connected device. ZDI’s event announcement describes the schedule and target categories.
The contest was structured around vulnerability disclosure, rather than a claim that the devices had been put up for sale or that consumers should buy or avoid them. ZDI’s final event report said vendors had 90 days to produce patches for the disclosed vulnerabilities.
Rank #2
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- 1TB PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe M.2 SSD
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- Gigabit LAN, 2x2 WiFi 7 (802.11be), Bluetooth 5.4
- 4.19 lbs. (1.90 kg)，Windows 11 Home
How does the first-day payout compare with the final total?
The Day 1 figure was a running total, not the contest’s final payout. At the close of the four-day event, ZDI reported awarding $1,038,500 for 58 unique zero-days. ZDI’s final-day results give the event-wide total and zero-day count.
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