TL;DR
- Day-One Results: Researchers reportedly exploited Microsoft Edge and Windows 11 on May 14 at Pwn2Own Berlin 2026.
- Top Payout: Orange Tsai reportedly earned $175,000 for an Edge sandbox escape in the opening round.
- Contest Scale: The event reportedly paid $523,000 for 24 unique zero-days on its first day.
- Vendor Deadline: Accepted bugs now begin the contest’s 90-day repair window before technical details are disclosed.
Security researchers earned $523,000 for 24 unique 0-days on Thursday, May 14, as Pwn2Own Berlin 2026 opened with successful exploit chains against Microsoft Edge and Windows 11. Immediate stakes came from the contest’s rules: accepted entries target fully updated systems, so the first-day wins started a repair and disclosure process rather than exposing flaws in outdated software.
On Day One, Cheng-Da Tsai, better known as Orange Tsai, produced the biggest Microsoft-specific result with an Edge sandbox escape worth $175,000. On Day Two, he surpassed that with a $200,000 Microsoft Exchange exploit chain that achieved remote code execution as SYSTEM. A sandbox escape breaks out of the browser’s built-in isolation, so the chain showed a path past one of Edge’s main containment layers. Orange Tsai’s result also stood out because it tied a high payout to a browser target that still sits at the center of day-to-day enterprise use.
Windows 11 also drew multiple accepted attacks. Organizers had already placed a local escalation attempt in the Thursday, May 14 – 1300 slot before the contest opened, and the completed demonstrations now mean vendors have 90 days to release security fixes. Pwn2Own Automotive in January 2026 ran under the same recurring 90-day vendor patch window, which shows that Berlin’s vendor deadline follows a broader contest pattern rather than a one-off rule for this event.
For non-specialists, the Microsoft results hit different layers of defense. A Windows privilege escalation gives an attacker higher system access than intended, while a browser sandbox escape breaks out of a restricted browsing environment. Landing both on day one showed separate pressure points in Microsoft’s browser containment and local operating-system protections, not one repeated failure mode.
How Microsoft Landed Among the Day-One Standouts
Official results showed Orange Tsai earning 17.5 Master of Pwn points on top of the cash prize. DEVCORE gained an early competitive push from that tally, and the Edge chain became one of the clearest technical storylines from the opening round. Browser-isolation failures still command attention at Pwn2Own because they show a route from routine user-facing software into broader system access.
Windows 11 produced a wider spread of accepted exploits than Edge did. Angelboy and TwinkleStar03 used an Improper Access Control bug to escalate privileges for $30,000, while Marcin Wiązowski and Kentaro Kawane added separate payouts in later opening-day rounds. Multiple teams reaching the same operating system through different demonstrations is a harder signal for defenders than a single isolated win, because separate exploit paths can point to more than one repair problem.
DEVCORE’s $205,000 lead put the team ahead of Valentina Palmiotti’s $70,000 after day one. Tsai’s Edge chain accounted for most of that margin, which linked Microsoft’s browser result to the leaderboard as well as the technical narrative. By the end of the first day, Microsoft was both a visible product target and a meaningful factor in the standings race.
Berlin’s broader contest design helps explain why the Microsoft hits carried more weight than a single product demo. Organizers said in March that the event would offer more than $1,000,000 across 31 targets. March planning also added new AI and NVIDIA categories, widening the field to enterprise platforms, browsers, developer tools, operating systems, and emerging AI systems in one prize pool.
Pwn2Own Berlin 2026 runs at OffensiveCon through May 16, keeping the Microsoft results inside a three-day contest rather than a one-round showcase. Over three days, later exploit chains can either reinforce the Microsoft pattern or leave the opening hits as the main damage. Microsoft already absorbed visible first-day hits, but the final read on its exposure depends on whether later rounds expand the accepted bug list beyond Edge and Windows 11.
What Vendors and Researchers Face Next
Detailed CVE write-ups, exploit chains, and vendor-specific patch schedules have not been published yet. Contest entries still have to target latest operating system versions and demonstrate arbitrary code execution, which raises the bar above a theoretical proof of concept. Vendors now have to reproduce the accepted chains on their own builds, confirm root causes, and prepare fixes inside a disclosure window that has already started.
Friday’s results expanded the Microsoft story beyond Edge and Windows 11. Orange Tsai of DEVCORE chained three bugs to achieve remote code execution as SYSTEM on Microsoft Exchange, earning $200,000 and 20 Master of Pwn points, while Siyeon Wi added another Windows 11 local privilege-escalation result using an integer overflow. SharePoint, however, did not join the successful Microsoft results, as Rapid7’s Stephen Fewer could not get his exploit working within the allotted time. Through Day Two, Pwn2Own Berlin 2026 had awarded $908,750 for 39 unique vulnerabilities, with DEVCORE leading Master of Pwn at 40.5 points and $405,000.
