Back in August, Raspberry Pi Foundation put a hacking bounty on its RP2350 microcontroller, with a $20,000 reward for anyone that could crack it. No-one has managed to claim the cash just yet, so the deadline has been extended until the very end of the year. You’ve got until December 31, 2025, at midnight (UK time) to solve this challenge.

All the details surrounding RP2350 Hacking Challenge 2 are available on GitHub, so if you want to join the party late, be sure to follow the instructions there. The challenge was originally set to last three months, but since “some teams and individuals” are still working on it, the Raspberry Pi team has kindly moved the deadline back.

RP2350 Hacking Challenge 2 extended under December 31

This challenge is focused on the encrypted boot of the Raspberry Pi RP2350. The team has added a feature that allow users to encrypt their application’s code and data when stored in external flash. This data is decrypted when loaded into internal SRAM using Raspberry Pi’s AES software library, while the encryption keys and other security information is hidden away in one-time programmable (OTP) memory.

Anyone (or any team) that can find a way to extract the AES key material using side-channel analysis (including methods such as power usage, electromagnetic emissions, or timing) and decrypt the data can win some cash. Unlike the original RP2350 hacking challenge, the full $20,000 prize is being rewarded to the very first individual or team to do it.

We’ve not received a winning submission yet, but we know of some teams and individuals still working on the challenge so we’ve decided to extend the deadline for submissions till the end of 2025. The prize remains unchanged at $20,000.

Happy hacking!

Source: GitHub

In a blog post on the Raspberry Pi website, the team says they’ve “had some good chats with a number of teams and individuals working on this challenge” and there is apparently some progress being made, so there’s no need to give up yet. “A bit of extra time might provide ample opportunity to ruin our day,” says the team, referencing the fact that $20,000 is still on the line. This hacking challenge has been put together in collaboration with hextree.io, so you’ll be ruining their day too.

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Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.