OPC UA (Open Platform Communications United Architecture) is a machine-to-machine communication protocol that is used by many industrial solutions providers to ensure interoperability between various types of industrial control systems (ICS).

JFrog’s researchers discovered several vulnerabilities in OPC UA and disclosed some of them at the Pwn2Own Miami 2022 competition in April, where participants earned a total of $400,000 for hacking ICS.

In the OPC UA server category at Pwn2Own, the maximum prize was $40,000, for bypassing a trusted application check, and participants could earn $20,000 for remote code execution flaws.