Hotz is notable for being one of the first people to jailbreak (unlock) an Apple iPhone and, after steadily releasing a number of jailbreaks for the smartphone, turned his attentions to the Playstation 3 in late 2009, quickly developing homebrew software to allow the PS3 to play PS2 games. That episode drew legal action from Sony and assured Hotz' notoriety, Infosecurity notes.
Now it seems that the 21-year-old has been turning his attentions to the Windows Phone 7 platform and, according to the Electronista newswire, he will also be demonstrating cracks on other systems as well.
"This may include listening in on conversations, making long-distance calls from the hacked device and more. Those who successfully do so in the shortest amount of time will win $15,000 and the device that was hacked", notes the newswire.
As reported previously, TippingPoint is sponsoring the Pwn2Own contents that will see a variety of mainstream desktop browsers, as well as a Dell Venue Pro on Windows Phone 7, an iPhone 4 running iOS, a Blackberry Torch 9800 on Blackberry 6 OS and a Google Nexus S running Android.
Last week also saw Charlie Miller of Baltimore-based ISE, who has won Pwn2Own three times on the trot, announcing publicly that he is upset at the scale of the contest this year.
"I'm disappointed in how many people have signed up [for Pwn2Own] and how few will win prizes", he told MacWorld, questioning what happens to the other exploits that don't win.
MacWorld notes that Miller's point is that with so many contestants - TippingPoint has said this year's list is the largest ever - some researchers will go home empty-handed.
"But the vulnerabilities they find and the exploits they create will not be taken off the market", says the newswire.