On the second day of the Pwn2Own Austin 2021 competition, Mr. L and Nguyn Hoàng Thc of STARLabs hacked and got code execution on the Samsung Galaxy S21 with the latest Android 11 security updates.
The move earned them $25,000 and 2.5 Master of Pwn points, taking their total earnings to $75,000 and 7 points after the first two days of the competition.
While they successfully exploited a zero-day vulnerability, their efforts were labeled a “collision,” as the disclosure room stated that the bug was known to the seller in advance.
With various devices such as mobile phones, printers, routers, network-connected storage (NAS), smart speakers, televisions, external storage and other devices with current default configuration, Samsung Galaxy S21 was the only device that was not compromised on day one, thanks to Ken Gannon’s (F-Secure Labs) inability to get his zero-day exploit to work within the set time limit.
Currently, the initiative has awarded $777,500 on the first two days of Pwn2Own Austin, with $362,500 awarded on the first day and $415,000 on the second day of the event.