2 minutes to hack into a mac ?? Might sound impossible to many, but its been made possible at the security conference.
Linux Vs Mac OS X Vs Vista
CanSecWest security conference started a contest : Linux versus Mac OS X versus Vista. Who will get hacked first?
The participants were supposed to use a brand-new ‘zero day’ attack that nobody has seen before. The prize? US$20,000, plus you get to keep the laptop.
Contest is called PWN 2 OWN.
Pwn (which rhymes with own) is a hacker term meaning to take control of a computer.
The first day passed and nobody was able to hack into the systems as the contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages.
And this rule relaxation on the second day earned Charlie Miller $10,000 in just next two minutes. Well this must the be the fastest money earned by any Hacker ( might be ).
Quoting from the article at Washington post
Miller, best known as one of the researchers who first hacked Apple’s iPhone last year, didn’t take much time. Within 2 minutes, he directed the contest’s organizers to visit a Web site that contained his exploit code, which then allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers cheered him on.
For those who want to know how he did that would be disappointed as Miller was quickly made to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement , preventing him from discussing the flaw in Public. Since the contest allow to exploit the use of any preinstalled software on the machine, it is pretty likely that he must have exploited a flaw in world’s fastest browser, Safari (its not yet confirmed ). Quite possible, like the antivirus site installed malware by exploiting iframe property in browsers.
Last year’s contest winner, Dino Dai Zovi, exploited a vulnerability in QuickTime to take home the prize.
Considering the security flaws in Mac , I hope this would give you a second thought on not installing Windows Vista on a Mac. While apple is targeting Windows market share by providing an option of installing Vista, its actually trying to hit two targets at once ( selling a MAC PC and keeping it secure with Vista 
) . So whats your take on Mac’s security. I hope Ashwin and Mayank are listening to me 
.
Also read : $84 million porn filter hacked by a 14 year old kid.
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Ha ha ha, that was wonderful. Well I guess the fact could be that Mac being “technologically” advanced makes hackers try it. There was another article long time back stating that Mac was more prone to attacks than Vista.
Many be hackers are bored of MS products. But Vista seems to be really secure and asks users confirmation every time if it finds there is something happening that might be doubted as virus. This should be a piece of knowledge they studied from many Linux dists.
You’re a poet and you didn’t even know it. “hack into a mac” that line is stuck in my head now
Seriously would I want to install a Vista? Even when I was running a Windows Box, I didn’t use any anti things (no AV, no firewall, no anti spyware, etc..), then why would I want to use in a Mac?
To hell with the hacking thing. Mac is still the most secure and the technically advanced platform.
@nirmal,
Mac seems to be hackers favourite or may be apple made it that way. I dont know if you are stating about this article ..
http://www.clazh.com/did-someone-say-macs-are-more-secure-than-windows/
@smackall
, hackers must have got tired hacking windows in less than a minute 
Sometimes buggy problems might seems positive and that has happened with vista. But I liked what you said “hackers are bored of MS products” ..
@emmaS
.. I knew it was rhyming , but never knew someone will really notice it … 
… I normally try to give a pretty interesting start .. sometimes work .. sometimes not … happy that this time it worked as someone noticed it .
Ohh !! thanks for the compliment
@ashwin,
… really appreciate your confidence in Mac, and to tell you the reality , I actually hate Vista. Seems like reverse psychology “the more anti you are .. the more you are vulnerable to attacks” .
thats called a kickass answer
@Kanak,
yes, Kanak. Seems they don’t have anything challenging in windows box to put their time in hacking.
May be Macs are vulnerable than Vista. I never used Vista but heard horrible things about it.
@Ram
Nothing is horrible in Vista… This that keep it secure is annoying to the user often. And it has many bugs that we will have to wait until SP1 arrives.
@smackall,
. Also what if , SP1 makes vista even more annoying with slow speed and hence highly crashable.
yeah nothing challenging
@ram
Good that you didnt use Vista. If you are still on XP , you will really have a tough time adjusting to it .. My advice, Switch to vista only if you dont have any alternative i.e Win 98 , Win2k etc.
Absolutely agree with Kanak Bhandari.
Now since the discussion has shifted to XP and Vista, I would just say that Vista is going through the same phase as XP when it was launched. People were behind XP saying all nonsense and now finally they say XP is the best OS of Microsoft. Take my word, people will say that Vista is the best when Microsoft launches Windows 7.
@Kanak,
I do not feel switching to Vista is a tough task, its almost the same except the look and feel.
vista vs XP again?
Nirmal, people will say so about vista only when they will actually shift to vista, as many are not ready to shift. Just that it comes preinstalled with laptops, thats how MS is making people use it.
.. I havnt used Vista that much .. I am satisfied with XP 
Win 7 seems to be out in 2009 or 2010. Thats just 1 and a half or 2 years. People are looking to jump directly to 7. Working with XP for 5 years, it gets a bit difficult to adjust with Vista. And i feel, lots of things are different. Oops !! I cant find a “run ” at the same place in start menu.
Cant find run in start menu? Oh god! Is that the reason you dont want to try out Vista?
Seriously you should be using Vista.
@nirmal .. lolzz
, obviously thats not the reason. Just that, it was just one example of very very very minute difference. A die hard fan of mouse usage, will really get bugged seeing it disappear…
I doubt I will be shift to vista … MAC is next on the list
[...] has lot of improvements over XP in features and design. People who use Vista for first time complain that many commands or features available in XP are missing in [...]
Well, I have written post on how to restore Run command in Vista start menu.
@nirmal
Yeah i saw that post, and left a comment yesterday. It was a big comment , but I think it got lost (or deleted ) in sea of spams
Kanak,
I didnt see the comment in either spam or in moderation. May be it was not submitted.
Hi everybody, I was away for a while busy with shifting our office…
Just was back and saw lot of interesting posts from everyone. Will continue my comment work from today. 
Nice posts Kanak
@nirmal
I too wonder where it went .. anyways 4get it … its past
@shankar
Welcome back , I was also wondering where you went. Didnt see any post moreover , I think there was some problems. Your posts just got disappeared.
@rakshit,
thanks for that
@rajesh
yeah now its vista + XP … before it was Nokia + sony
Check it out
http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/Onecare_default.htm?sc_cid=mscom_srch
great. Good the Microsoft jumping into this section
. Very much required for Windows.