Hackers “squeezed” $ 350,000 and a car from Tesla. The company didn’t mind

Hackers often make money illegally – but they also have legal ways to earn money. During the official Pwn2Own competition, the Synactiv group managed to bypass the protection of the Tesla car twice – and received not only an impressive cash prize, but also a brand new branded electric car.

On the first day of the competition, hackers successfully used a TOCTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) attack to break the protection of a Model 3 sedan. For this, they received a reward of $ 100,000 and the car itself. According to media reports, the company also asked the hackers not to disclose information about the vulnerability until it is fixed.

On the second day, Synactiv representatives hacked the car again, gaining administrator rights in its multimedia system, and earned another $ 250,000. In addition, hackers made their mark in other disciplines, “opening” Windows 11, macOS, Ubuntu and Oracle VirtualBox. As a result, the team was on the first line of the competition rating and in total received about $500,000 in prize money.