Pwn2Own 2016

The annual event, which was originally hosted by HP's ZDI, will now be jointly hosted by HP and TrendMicro (post the acquisition). Details are here and here.

Highlights:

• Exploiting Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge will earn hackers $65,000
• Exploiting Apple Safari on Mac only $40,000. 
• Achieving system-level access on Windows or root access on Mac OS X would add another $20,000 to the final payout.
• Adobe Reader, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer are no longer on the contest's target list. Adobe Flash remains, but only the version that comes bundled with Microsoft Edge
• If anyone manages to escape the VMware Workstation virtual machine and achieves code execution on the host operating system, they’ll receive an additional $75,000

Pwn2Own Contest 2015

HP TippingPoint's Pwn2Own is back in Mar-2015.

The prize pool for this year's edition is 28% smaller than the record $645,000 of 2014.
The 2015 edition of Pwn2Own will offer cash awards to researchers who demonstrate exploits of previously-unknown vulnerabilities in Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) or Apple's Safari browsers, or the Adobe Reader or Adobe Flash Player browser plug-ins.
Those targets are the same as the last two years, with the exception of Oracle's Java, which was dropped for 2015's contest.

Update 21-Mar-15:  Final results

The final count for vulnerabilities exploited this year stands as follows: five flaws in the Windows OS, four in Internet Explorer 11, three each in Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Reader, and Flash Player, two in Apple Safari and one in Google Chrome.

Pwn2Own Contest 2014

Update 17-Nov-2014:
November's contest, held in Tokyo:  The only phone left un-hacked was (surprisingly) Windows?! I wonder if that is because of not too many people reviewing it, or if it actually has become secured

Update 18-Mar-2014:
Vupen wins $300K

Update 31-Jan-2014:
After Google announced it's hacking contest (with $2.7M at stake!), HP's ZDI announces Pwn2Own

Google Pwnium Contest Mar-2014

$2.7M on stake! Being hosted in Canada

Pwn2Own 2013

All right get set for the most interesting 'capture the flag' battle. This time there is a record $560K on the line, and Google is supportive and one of the funders. This is mostly because, they have flipped back to the previous rules, and not using 2012's rules

Update 29-Jan-2013:
Google stakes Pwnium hacking contest to $3.14M in potential prizes

Update 14-Sep-2013:
Second annual event scheduled in Tokyo, in Nov 2013

Update 14-Nov-2013:
Pinkie Pie breaks Samsung S4 and Chrome!

Pwn2Own 2012

23-Jan-2012:
This year's Pwn2Own contest has much higher prize money, and has a different format. Looks like Pen-testing is fast becoming a sport..!!

Update 28-Feb-2012:
Google withdraws it's sponsorship for the Pwn2Own event, and announces it will hold another similar event (called Pwnium) or its Chrome browser, at the same venue, with $ 1 million in reward...!!

Update 07-Mar-2012:
The hacking king, Charlie Miller will not be participating this year.

Update 07-Mar-2012:
Glazunov scores $60,000 for the first Pwnium payout..! So unlike last few years, this time Chrome is the first browser to go down. However, this is not necessarily because the browser is insecure, but only because the prize money is enormous.

Update 09-Mar-2012:
Barely 24 hours after Chrome's bug was discovered, it has been patched and the latest version of the browser is now available.

French team from Vupen, was able to hack both IE9 and Chrome. Hence, Chrome gets hacked twice in the same week! However, this particular bug will not be reported to Google, and hence may not get patched at all.

12-Mar-2012:
Google Chrome falls again, this time by a teenager, who calls himself Pinkie Pie! Once again, he earned $60,000 from Google, and once again Google patched the vulnerability in less than 24 hours!! Commendable effort, indeed.

Update 26-Aug-2012:
Google decides to have a second Chrome hacking contest, and the max prize pool is a whooping a 2M. Location = KL, Malaysia

Update 10-Oct-2012:
The same kid (Pinkie Pie ) breaks into chrome a second time, to win $60,000!!

Australia's IT Sec contest

In case any one is interested in story writing.

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" – "Who watches the watchmen" Awards!!!

The Big Brother Awards honor individuals, companies and government institutions that “have severely violated privacy.” There are three prize categories: People, Companies and Government.

The winners:

1. Dutch minister Edith Schippers was awarded the People prize
2. Facebook won the Company award
3. The Government prize was awarded to the national police (the KLPD)

Pwn2Own Contest

To know more about this "one of its kind" hacking contest, go over my article in the April issue of the CH Magazine (on page 17).

http://chmag.in/issue/apr2010.pdf