Trend Micro Awards Over USD$1,000,000 to Ethical Hackers
Participants at Pwn2Own Ireland discovered scores of zero-day vulnerabilities
AUCKLAND, October 28, 2025 – Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cybersecurity leader, today celebrated the efforts of the global security research community at Pwn2Own Ireland. Contestants discovered and disclosed 73 unique zero-day vulnerabilities in printers, network storage systems, smart home devices, surveillance equipment, home networking equipment, flagship smartphones, and wearable technology.
To learn more about Pwn2Own Ireland 2025, please visit: https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2025/10/23/pwn2own-ireland-2025-day-three-and-master-of-pwn
Summoning Team won bragging rights and USD$187,500 as the overall competition winner, or “Master of Pwn.”
Mick McCluney, ANZ Field CTO at Trend: “Our mission is to approach security proactively and gather the deepest threat intelligence in the industry. The 73 zero-day bugs discovered at Pwn2Own will directly help make the digital world a safer place. We’re proud to empower vendors to patch these vulnerabilities while offering our customers protection from exploits well ahead of any other cybersecurity provider. As cyber risk continues to rise worldwide, Pwn2Own remains a valuable tool in staying ahead.”
A total of USD$1,024,750 in prizes were awarded to the participants. Research conducted at Pwn2Own enables Trend to protect customers from zero-day exploits an average of 71 days ahead of the industry, an essential advantage in the race against cybercriminals.
The event featured a variety of highlights as hackers competed for a cash prize pool of over USD$2 million:
- Ben R. and Georgi G. of Interrupt Labs used an improper input validation bug to exploit a Samsung Galaxy S25—including its camera and location tracking—earning USD$50,000
- Ken Gannon / 伊藤 剣 of Mobile Hacking Lab, and Dimitrios Valsamaras of Summoning Team leveraged five different bugs to exploit the Samsung Galaxy S25, earning them USD$50,000.
- Bongeun Koo and Evangelos Daravigkas of Team DDOS used eight different bugs, including multiple injections, to complete a “SOHO Smashup” of the QNAP Qhora-322 router and QNAP TS-453E NAS device. They earned USD$100,000 in the process.
- dmdung of STAR Labs SG Pte. Ltd used a single OOB access bug to exploit the Sonos Era 300 smart speaker, earning USD$50,000.
- Sina Kheirkhah and McCaulay Hudson of Summoning Team exploited a pair of vulnerabilities to hack the Synology ActiveProtect Appliance DP320.
- Although Team Z3 withdrew their attempt to demonstrate a zero-click exploit of WhatsApp, the research was shared privately with Trend Micro ZDI and Meta to ensure that any potential vulnerabilities could be patched.
The next competition, Pwn2Own Automotive, will be held in Tokyo, Japan on January 21-23, 2026.
About Trend Micro
Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fuelled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro's AI-powered cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organisations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. As a leader in cloud and enterprise cybersecurity, Trend’s platform delivers a powerful range of advanced threat defence techniques optimised for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. With 7,000 employees across 70 countries, Trend Micro enables organisations to simplify and secure their connected world. www.trendmicro.com
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