Vista Gets Hacked, Linux Remains Unbroken In Contest

Vancouver (WA) - Over the weekend, a hacker managed to exploit a vulnerability in the Windows Vista Flash player, as part of the CanSecWest's "Pwn2Own" contest. The competition pitted a Windows, Apple and Linux computer side-by-side to see which would crack first.

The Apple notebook, a Macbook Air, was the first to fall in just two hours after the contest started.

Shane Macaulay was able to fully compromise a notebook running Windows Vista about a day later. He managed to break the computer's safeguards by exploiting a hole in the way the PC read Flash code.

TOPICS
Mark Raby
Contributor

Mark Raby is a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware, covering a wide range of topics, from video game reviews to detailed analyses of computer processors.