Pwn2Own Berlin Finale: DEVCORE Wins Master of Pwn, 47 Zero-Days Fall

Pwn2Own Berlin 2026 concluded with DEVCORE Research Team claiming the Master of Pwn title after three days of competition that saw 47 unique zero-day vulnerabilities demonstrated across enterprise software, AI platforms, and virtualization infrastructure. The final tally reached $1,298,250 in awards.

This wraps up our coverage of the event, following Day One's 24 zero-days and Day Two's Exchange Server chain that earned Orange Tsai $200,000.

Day Three Results

The final day added eight more zero-days worth $389,500, bringing the three-day total to 47 unique vulnerabilities. According to the Zero Day Initiative's official results:

Target	Researcher	Vulnerability	Prize
VMware ESXi	Nguyen Hoang Thach (STARLabs SG)	Memory corruption + cross-tenant escape	$200,000
Microsoft SharePoint	splitline (DEVCORE)	2-bug chain	$100,000
Windows 11	Multiple researchers	Privilege escalation	$15,000
Red Hat Enterprise Linux	Multiple researchers	Root privilege escalation	$10,000

The VMware ESXi exploit stood out as the contest's second-highest single payout. Nguyen Hoang Thach demonstrated a memory corruption vulnerability that achieved cross-tenant code execution—the add-on that bumped his reward from $150,000 to $200,000. Cross-tenant escapes represent the nightmare scenario for cloud providers running multi-tenant VMware infrastructure.

Master of Pwn Standings

DEVCORE dominated the competition with 50.5 Master of Pwn points and $505,000 in total rewards:

Rank	Team	Points	Earnings
1	DEVCORE	50.5	$505,000
2	STARLabs SG	25	$242,500
3	Out Of Bounds	12.75	$95,750

Orange Tsai's Day Two Microsoft Exchange chain ($200,000), combined with teammate splitline's SharePoint exploit ($100,000) and their Edge sandbox escape ($175,000 on Day One), secured the championship for DEVCORE.

The Capacity Crisis Nobody Saw Coming

For the first time in 19 years, Pwn2Own hit maximum capacity. ZDI closed registration on May 7, a week before the May 14 start date, because they simply couldn't process more entries within the event timeline.

The bottleneck comes from Pwn2Own's live demonstration requirement. Every exploit chain must be tested on-site with judges present, and each attempt gets a 30-minute window. With AI-assisted exploit development accelerating the discovery pace, researchers submitted entries faster than the schedule could accommodate.

The capacity crunch created collateral damage. Research group xchglabs reportedly had 86 vulnerabilities ready for targets including NVIDIA, Docker, Linux KVM, and PyTorch. Unable to compete, they announced plans to report directly to vendors and publish details as patches ship—a "revenge disclosure" wave that could drop dozens of zero-days over the coming weeks.

What Gets Patched Next

All 47 demonstrated vulnerabilities enter a 90-day coordinated disclosure window. Vendors now have that timeline to ship patches before ZDI publishes technical details.

The high-priority targets for security teams to watch:

• Microsoft Exchange Server - Orange Tsai's 3-bug RCE chain (Day Two) adds to the CVE-2026-42897 zero-day already under active exploitation
• Microsoft SharePoint - splitline's 2-bug chain demonstrated server-side code execution
• VMware ESXi - Cross-tenant escape affects any organization running multi-tenant virtual infrastructure
• Microsoft Edge - Sandbox escape bypasses Chromium's primary security boundary
• AI platforms - Multiple vulnerabilities in LiteLLM, Cursor, LM Studio, and OpenAI Codex

AI Platforms: The Soft Targets

Building on Day One and Two results, AI development tools proved consistently exploitable. Code injection, insufficient sandboxing, and trust boundary violations appeared throughout the AI category—introduced for the first time at Pwn2Own Berlin 2026.

Organizations deploying AI coding assistants should treat these tools as attack surface until the demonstrated vulnerabilities are patched. The Cursor IDE fell twice to different research teams, suggesting systemic rather than isolated security issues.

The Bigger Picture

Pwn2Own Berlin 2026 exposed vulnerabilities in foundational enterprise infrastructure: Exchange, SharePoint, ESXi, Windows, and the emerging AI development toolchain. The 47 zero-days represent what skilled researchers can find with focused effort—and what motivated attackers are likely also discovering.

For deeper context on how nation-state actors and criminal groups operationalize these same vulnerability classes, see our recommended cybersecurity reading.