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Hacking contest: Linux unscathed, MacBook and Vista hacked

Posted Mar 31, 2008 at 4:54AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Tags: apple news, Hackers, Linux, Mac OS X, VAIO

PWN 2 OWN Contest: MacBook Air and Vista hacked, Linux left standing - Image 1

Last week, the CanSecWest conference held a hacking contest that pitted three laptops against hackers. Winners got cash prizes as well as the laptop they hacked.

Each laptop ran on a different OS. The first was the MacBook Air, which of course ran Mac OS X. Next was a Fujitsu laptop running Vista, and the third was a Sony Vaio running on Linux.

By the end of the contest, the Linux laptop was the only one left standing. Not one hacker was able to crack it. Some 400 of the participants found a lot of bugs in the OS, but they ultimately failed to develop an exploit code to hack it.

The first to go was the MacBook Air. In fact, it was hacked in less than two minutes by Charlie Miller. His methods are still unclear, but it's known that he hacked it using an exploit in the Safari Web browser. He took home US$ 10,000 in addition to the laptop.

The second (and last) to go was the Vista, which took two days to hack. It was hacked by Shane Macaulay, with help from friends. Macaulay was the winner of last year's contest. He hacked the code by taking advantage of Java to get around Vista's security.

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Your post is TREMENDOUSLY misleading. The Macbook Air did NOT take twi minutes to hack. It took ONE DAY and two minutes. You should really clarify that since you are comparing it against Vista. It seems like you're saying the Mac was hacked in 2 minutes while it took 2 days to hack Vista while in reality the Mac was hacked in 2 minutes on the 2nd days. So it survived for a full day.

Mac hacked in 1 day.

Vista hacked in 2 days.

Linux unhacked.

# ..... — Endshow 2008-04-01 02:19

Hey,you macbook air llllllover! I'am sure you are making a joke of youself. TTTTTRy to act smart and point out other mistakes! Now you are the one who made The TREMENDOUSLY misleading ya! Go do some research before post anything BOYBOY.

# Heh — theaceoffire 2008-04-01 03:58

You do realize that each day allowed more stuff? Day one, they were not allowed to touch the computer, just use the network.

However, once they were able to touch it, it was hacked in 2 minutes.

Sad.

# umm yea — zman977 2008-04-01 04:03

"wasnt osx supposed to be invincible though?" haha i love it when people say that lol and vista lasted longer on top of that. btw if you want a really secure internet grab an old computer and slap linux on it and make t your gateway or smoothewall (its linux but it acts as an router)

# mac vista - vista mac — SolidXnake 2008-04-01 13:16

Just forget it and put Linux

# great. — Esaar 2008-04-01 15:46

*sigh*

@ Endshow: Oh my God! Someone posted an intelligent comment about misleading information. Let's all follow up with non-sensical bull***** to prove the Internet really is full of 13 year old pre-pubescent *****tards!!!!!

@ theaceoffire: Yeah you're right. Sorry I forgot to mention that. The Macbook was hacked in 2 minutes as soon as more powerful attacks were allowed. It is sad.

The main point here however is that this article is written in a way that it seems the mac was hacked in 2 minutes and it took 48 hours for Vista. Which is misleading. Granted that there were only network attacks allowed the first day, it still survived day 1.

# Woo! — kloplop321 2008-04-03 15:09

Linux

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Hacking contest: Linux unscathed, MacBook and Vista hacked

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