Hackers Exploit 16 Zero-Days on First Day of Pwn2Own Automotive 2025

by Justin Erickson

Security researchers at the Pwn2Own Automotive 2025 competition successfully exploited 16 zero-day vulnerabilities on the first day of the event, earning over $380,000 in rewards. The competition, hosted by Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), focuses on uncovering security flaws in automotive technologies, including in-vehicle infotainment systems and EV chargers. This highlighted many unknown vulnerabilities that could be used to compromise vehicles remotely. Vendors have 90 days to create security patches for these flaws before ZDI publicly reveals them.