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MacBook Air First To Be Compromised In Hacking Contest

Posted by Soulskill on from the potential-reality-tv-show dept.

Multiple readers have written to let us know that the MacBook Air was the first laptop to fall in the CanSecWest hacking contest. The successful hijacking took place only two minutes into the second day of the competition, after the rules had been relaxed to allow the visiting of websites and opening of emails. The TippingPoint blog reveals that the vulnerability was located within Safari, but they won't release specific details until Apple has had a chance to correct the problem. The winner, Charlie Miller, gets to keep the laptop and $10,000. We covered the contest last year, and the results were similar.

16 of 493 comments (clear)

  1. 0wnership by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah, the pride of 0wnership.

  2. do you hear that ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    the sound of a million fanbois as they screamed Nooooooooooooo i sense i disturbance in the reality distortion generator set comments to flamebait and activate the extra moderation modules captain taco

    1. Re:do you hear that ? by Lovat · · Score: 4, Funny

      You are correct, sir. Flaimbait tags on both the story and half the comments here in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

  3. Better headline by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Safari browser has massive security hole.

    It's funny how they turned a huge hole in the Safari browser into a commercial for the Mac Air.

    "Small size, big holes"

    1. Re:Better headline by ilikejam · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's a 'yo mama' joke in there somewhere.

      --
      C-x C-s C-x k
  4. Keep the laptop by iliketrash · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The winner, Charlie Miller, gets to keep the laptop and $10,000."

    You mean like when your airplane flight is cancelled and the airline offers you a free ticket. Or when the food at a restaurant is crappy and they give you a coupon to eat there again.

  5. Re:Identical articles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Vista machine would have been hacked quicker if it ran faster

  6. Re:Get the Facts is a better tag. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes. The totally unbiased facts from a guy with "Mac" in his username.

  7. Safari holed, so Apple pushes it to Windows ;) by Marbleless · · Score: 3, Funny

    So it is just coincidence that Apple are now pushing an unsafe Safari to Windows users (http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/27/129236)?

    Or am I being a conspiracy nut? ;)

    --
    --I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
  8. Re:And in other news..... by linumax · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We Love Microsoft and Hate All Things Apple." O_O Are we on the same slashdot? We all are on the same website; some posters though, are inside the Reality Distortion Field.
  9. Re:Ouch, that didn't take long. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sorry, you are confusing the Fuck-ton with the Ass-Load. The Imperial Ass-Load is the comparable unit. Fuck-ton is for measuring mass, not volume.

  10. Re:Get the Facts is a better tag. by exley · · Score: 5, Funny

    The contest was also sponsored by the likes of Google, Cisco, Adobe, some security folk... They must all have it in for Apple, oh no Apple is screwed! Plus if you read how the contest was run, it's hard to make the case that this was all pro-MS.

    Get the facts... Up to the point where they support your agenda and then punt.

  11. Re:It Might Have Been Harder if... by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're right. With a stricter firewall, the browser wouldn't have been able to fetch anything over the internet at all.

  12. Re:Inquiring minds... by moderatorrater · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does "first to be compromised" mean the only one to be compromised? At this time, it was the only one hacked. The contest continue tomorrow.

    Is the contest completely over once one machine is cracked? It continues tomorrow with more 3rd party apps installed that can be used to break into the system. I don't see much chance of the other two making it through tomorrow, but that depends on the programs they install.

    If not, were Windows and Ubuntu cracked minutes or hours after OS X? They're both still un-cracked.

    Does using Firefox on OS X make it uncrackable? If you plug one hole in a sieve, will it hold water?

    Was each OS required to use it's own browser: IE, Safari, and Epiphany? They had to use the software that comes pre-installed on the machine.

    Since Firefox works on all 3 systems, wouldn't that be a better gauge of OS security? Only if Firefox came preinstalled on all 3 systems.

    Where did I come from? Your mother's vagina. Hopefully you've never been back.

    Why is the sky blue? Do I look like Einstein?
  13. Re:Identical articles by E+IS+mC(Square) · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Maybe I'm being ignorant" he says. Give him a chance. Give him one. ..."but was the same attention devoted to hacking the other systems?" Naah.. he lost it, the ignorant fool.

  14. Re:I think the relevant part is: by catwh0re · · Score: 3, Funny
    While this does make sense on the surface, the point of failure is that the hackers are not just entering the competition and trying their luck with random keystrokes. Each person is coming to the event with something they have prepared earlier. (Hence why the machine fell in 2 minutes, it fell with the first attempt.) This hacker targeted the mac for the follow-on benefits, it's a valuable prize and it'll earn him a lot of press. Now he can charge more per hour for his security consulting.

    No one is going to be interested in the fact that it required user-assistance and can't be executed remotely (which are by far the most worrisome.)