Hackers at Pwn2Own 2026 are tearing through major software again, and Windows 11 is among the targets. During the event’s second day, researchers successfully exploited Windows 11 using an integer overflow bug to gain higher system privileges.
The biggest payout went to security researcher Orange Tsai, who chained multiple flaws together to achieve remote code execution in Microsoft Exchange and walked away with $200,000.
AI tools also had a rough time. Researchers breached apps like OpenAI Codex, Cursor, Claude Desktop, and Ollama. Not every attempt worked though, as Safari and SharePoint resisted attacks during the session.
So far, the event has uncovered 39 zero-day exploits and paid out nearly $1 million in rewards.
Abhijith M B
