Dark Web Article Contest Offers $10,000 for Exploit Writing on TierOne Forum

The TierOne dark web forum announced a $10,000 article contest (13 Apr–14 May 2026), reportedly sponsored by ransomware group "cry0", inviting detailed submissions on vulnerability exploitation topics such as RCE, IDOR, SSTI, firmware attacks, zero-day discovery, and AV/EDR bypass techniques. The contest includes posting and quality requirements and mirrors legitimate research workflows while raising ethical and legal concerns about enabling malicious actors; the report contains no indicators of active exploitation or victimization but signals elevated risk from organized knowledge sharing in underground forums.