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Mac Hack Contest Redux

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-breaks-first dept.

narramissic writes "Remember the controversial Mac hacking contest from last year's CanSecWest conference? No? Here's a refresher: Conference organizers challenged attendees to hack into a Macintosh laptop, with the successful hacker winning the computer and a cash prize. Winner Dino Dai Zovi found a QuickTime bug that allowed him to run unauthorized software on the Mac once the computer's browser was directed to a specially crafted Web page. Well, the contest is back again this year, but with a twist, says Dragos Ruiu, the principal organizer of CanSecWest: 'We're thinking of having a contest where we have Vista and OS X and Linux ... and see which one goes first.""

3 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. easy by jim.hansson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=508230

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    preview button, my computer does't have any preview button
  2. I'd like to see stats on effort per platform by SuperBanana · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We're thinking of having a contest where we have Vista and OS X and Linux ... and see which one goes first.

    What I'd be most interested in is a survey of contestants as to their platform experience, and how focused they intend to be on attacking the different platforms. That part could be wildly unscientific, but could be interesting if everyone answers openly.

    Couple that with some good logs of network activity, to see how focused attacks are on the various systems.

    For example, it could turn out that nobody goes for the supposed low hanging fruit, and everyone tries to target the Mac...or an OpenBSD box, if they bring one. Etc.

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    Please help metamoderate.
  3. Re:TFA doesn't say by Shados · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Try this for giggles. Have a Vista machine. Send them an email with an exe file. Try and get them to execute it. Good luck. If you manage that, try the same exercise by MSN Messenger. At that point, even I am not sure I can do it without googling, and even then its tricky. Vista is a b**** when it comes to running EXEs received by email or MSN.