The Pwn2Own 2021 contest was held virtually. — VNA/VNS Photo

Viettel Cyber Security Company, a subsidiary of Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group, triumphed at the Pwn2Own 2021 contest - one of the world's largest cyber-attack competitions – which was held virtually by Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) on Wednesday and Thursday.

This was the second time the Viettel Cyber Security Company has attended the contest.

ZDI described this year’s event as one of the largest in Pwn2Own history, with 23 separate entries targeting ten different products in the categories of Web Browers, Virtualisation, Servers, Local Escalation of Privilege, and Enterprise Communications.

The contest aimed to detect security vulnerabilities in smart devices so manufacturers can immediately fix them, thus helping to keep client information safe.

The Viettel team targeted Windows 10 in the Local Escalation of Privilege category. It used an integer overflow in Windows 10 to escalate from a regular user to SYSTEM privileges. This earned them US$40,000, and four points towards Master of Pwn.

Targeting Microsoft Exchange in the Server category, the team successfully demonstrated their code execution on the Exchange server, helping them get 7.5 Master of Pwn points. — VNS