Pwn2Own Ireland 2025: The Hacks, The Winners, and The Big Payouts

Hackers earned over $1 million at Pwn2Own Ireland 2025 in Cork, breaching printers, routers, NAS devices, and more as Summoning Team claimed Master of Pwn.

From October 21st to 24th, 2025, the city of Cork, Ireland, hosted the annual live hacking contest Pwn2Own Ireland 2025, organised by the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI). Over three days, cybersecurity researchers from around the world attempted to breach devices, services and systems, including home routers, NAS appliances, printers and messaging apps like WhatsApp. In return, researchers got huge cash prizes.

Below is a day-by-day breakdown of what happened, who succeeded, and some of the key takeaways from this year’s contest.

Day 1: October 21

The first day opened with strong momentum. ZDI announced that 17 exploit attempts were scheduled, and remarkably, there were no failures on the day. A total of $522,500 USD was awarded for 34 unique zero-day vulnerabilities.

Among the ...