Ethical hackers at China's annual Tianfu Cup breach all major operating systems

The cup is a hackathon challenge with a prize pool of nearly $2 million

At a hackathon challenge at China's annual Tianfu Cup, ethical hackers competed to see who could breach all major operating systems the fastest.

There were a total of sixteen target products and all but three of them were breached within the stipulated time limit of five minutes. Hackers had to find an original exploit and then demonstrate it by breaking into the system. They were given three five-minute attempts to prove the legitimacy of their attacks. The prize pool for the winning team was almost $2 million.

All but three of the targets (via The Record) - Synology DS220j, Xiaomi Mi 11, Unbranded Chinese electric vehicle - were successfully hacked. Windows 10 was the target for five successful attempts and Adobe's PDF Reader came second with four successful attempts. Ubuntu 20 continued the four trend and Parallels was in fourth with three. Apple's iOS 15 rounded out the top five with three successful attempts.

Other notable hacks included Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and the Microsoft Exchange Server which has already seen some controversy this year.

Two attacks that stood out this year was a remote iPhone 13 Pro hack to jailbreak it over the air, while another remote execution vulnerability took down Google Chrome. The iPhone 13 Pro hack was the winner this year with a prize of $300,000.

The iPhone 13 Pro Safari escaped from prison remotely, and Chian Pangu won the highest single bonus of $300000 in history.@mj0011secpic.twitter.com/rrCa1cGcnN

— HBS (@765075247Hbs) October 16, 2021

Tianfu Cup is China's largest hacking competition, held every year to discuss ongoing cybersecurity issues, with participation from experts in the field.