The annual PWN2OWN contest is really popular. It’s a friendly contest that offers cash prizes to computer experts who can successfully hack fully patched machines.
While it all sounds a little sinister, the competition is actually part of CanSecWest, a security conference in Vancouver and is sponsored by a security company (Tipping Point). Last year the MacBook Air was broken in about 2 minutes and was the first to go. As if that weren’t embarrassing enough, the same guy this year hacked a fully up to date MacBook in a reported 10 seconds by exploiting a vulnerability in the Safari browser.
“It took a couple of seconds. They clicked on the link and I took control of the machine,” Charlie Miller said, according to ZDNet. Miller won himself $10,000 and got to hold onto the MacBook. He also said he came to CanSecWest with the intention to hack into Safari and tested the exploit to make sure it worked first time around.
Another hacker, who refers to himself as Nils, was second to break Safari. He also managed to exploit Internet Explore 8 (running on a Windows 7 machine) and later turned his double win into a hat trick by felling Mozilla’s Firefox.
Details of the vulnerabilities are being kept quiet until patches are released. But according to Tipping Point, Nils IE8 bug was “brilliant."
Check out the full stories on ZDNet.
so its ok for users of Macs to be smug, standing on a pedestal and mocking windows users, but if something comes along to shake your balance, and we acknowledge it, we're "fanboys"?
Don't you mean "turned his hat trick into a double win"?
This just goes to show that the majority of hacks and viruses happen because of how many people use the software/OS, not what the software/OS is.
so its ok for users of Macs to be smug, standing on a pedestal and mocking windows users, but if something comes along to shake your balance, and we acknowledge it, we're "fanboys"?
>happen because of how many people use the software/OS, not what
>the software/OS is.
That is true in real life, but does it also apply when professional people hack in a contest?
OK. Looks like this year they don't have OS hacking day. So no Linux PC for hacking. They are concentrating on browsers. In the past browser was on the second day of competition. Last year no one was able to hack the OS (Win, Mac or Linux) itself on day one. So I guess the OS is not the problem that much any more, but the user and the web itself.
Quote for truth.
I was being sarcastic. I was remembering back to last year when many mac users got this rubbed in there face. I use both, macbook for portability and homebuild for gaming and video editing. The contest result amuses me more then anything
Eh with the MS Army over here i think he knew it was comming. I am a 75% PC user and 25% mac user and people here call me a fanboy just for saying what i like about macs. It gets kinda old when a bunch of people who never took the time to use or learn an OS can have so much to say about it. MacOS is not a cure-all or miracle, but there are many things i rather do on it compared to a XP and expecially a vista PC. Besides, who uses safari on OSx anyways...
If anyone cares I have:
1 Vista machine used as a media center
3 XP machines; 2 at work 1 at home for games
1 MacOS Hackintosh (dell d620)
They all have their purpose and I don't go around calling the guy who doesn't use a mac a fanboy. Maybe it's just he uneducated people... whatever.
I wonder what the competition entails. Obviously these guys knew the vulnerabilities they were going to exploit ahead of time. Did this guy really only take 10 seconds to create a webpage that could attack Safari, or did it take him 10 seconds to type in a URL to a webpage that took him a few hours to code-up before the competition?
"He also said he came to CanSecWest with the intention to hack into Safari and tested the exploit to make sure it worked first time around."