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Pinkie Pie Earns $60K At Pwn2Own With Three Chromium 0-Day Exploits

Tackhead writes "Hot on the hooves of Sergey Glazunov's hack 5-minutes into Pwn2Own, an image of an axe-wielding pink pony was the mark of success for a hacker with the handle of Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie subtly tweaked Chromium's sandbox design by chaining together three zero-day vulnerabilities, thereby widening his appeal to $60K in prize money, another shot at a job opportunity at the Googleplex, and instantly making Google's $1M Pwnium contest about 20% cooler. (Let the record show that Slashdot was six years ahead of this particular curve, and that April Fool's Day is less than a month away.)"

148 comments

  1. You know what this calls for? by LiroXIV · · Score: 5, Funny

    A PARTY!!! (sorry bronies, couldn't resist)

    1. Re:You know what this calls for? by ShadowBlasko · · Score: 4, Funny

      Deploy The Party Cannon!

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
    2. Re:You know what this calls for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Wait, who invited Star Swirl the Bearded?

      He's always such a downer!

    3. Re:You know what this calls for? by XaneNightwing · · Score: 1

      it's cool. I appreciate the sentiment.

    4. Re:You know what this calls for? by Ihmhi · · Score: 2

      Assume the party escort submission position!

    5. Re:You know what this calls for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You know what this calls for?
      Deploy The Party Cannon!

      Well, since you asked nicely, allow me to deploy the Party Cannon like a boss. PARTY HARD! I'm pony and I know it!

      OK. Virus Alert! now over, and while we're waiting for the patch, let's watch the Dead Parrot Sketch, chug a mug o' mead and back to Skyrim, Portal, TF2, or whatever else you're playing tonight.

      And I found all that stuff within ten minutes of random youtube surfing. My brain is full of pinkie pie, and I love it.

      It's like the goddamn Cambrian explosion of Internet culture.

    6. Re:You know what this calls for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      This is your singing telegram I hope it find you well
      I found a browser exploit and it's working pretty swell

      Chrome's in version seventeen, but its sandbock's not complete
      I bought myself a vic'try cake, it hope it really sweet

      There will be massive patching i'm sure in a day or three
      And when you've downloaded the fixes, send some thanks to me

      No need to write a check, mr google's was enough
      But hacking not about the cash, but out stuff

      The hole's just in the browser, they'll patch it before too late
      but please oh please don't be a jerk, keep your OS up to date! /faints

    7. Re:You know what this calls for? by pushing-robot · · Score: 5, Funny

      Pinkie Pie Earns $60K At Pwn2Own With Three Chromium 0-Day Exploits

      Oh, sure, we're laughing now... but this should be a wake-up call.

      While at first glance they seem almost indistinguishable from us, there is actually a vital difference between Ponies and ourselves—educational systems.

      Pony schools are far more intense than ours, especially in the maths and sciences. If you're familiar with the so-called "math" taught in our primary schools, you will agree that this image is disturbing. Young fillies (and colts, though their society is strongly gender-biased) are also taught a tremendous work ethic and social responsibility virtually from birth; in fact, they are expected to demonstrate exceptional talent and plan a career even before they reach adolescence. Furthermore, Ponies are even taught to take responsibility for the world around them. Their town, their environment...hell, the Sun, Moon and skies might as well be in their charge. They possess a drive that we fail to instill in our own children.

      None of this is particularly surprising when you consider that Equestria is an autocratic state whose leader has a singular fixation on education. While our leaders focus on populism and pork, Equestria sinks more and more resources into teaching even while its infrastructure and government services seem positively primitive.

      What does this mean for us? In the short term we'll continue to maintain our dominance in industry, but farther out...simply put, we're fucked. While our children fall farther and father behind, their foals dash ahead. They're already pumping out incredible individuals and technologies that defy belief. I fully expect that the first footprints on Mars...will be hoofprints. But that's not the worst of it. In the next decade, a pony will likely take your job. Soon they'll be running our entire country.

      I know what you're thinking right now: "Oh my god...Ponies, rule?". But the answer is yes, and I can't put too fine a point on it: It's only a matter of time before Ponies totally and completely rule everything. That is—unless you do something about it today. Write to your representatives. Tell them unless we all want to start singing Pony anthems, they can no longer claim to be strong on education while cutting budgets and shirking responsibility.

      Tell them that starting tomorrow, their actions must match their words.

      Tell them they must stop this hippocracy.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    8. Re:You know what this calls for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Congrats to being whatever your consider being a grownup

    9. Re:You know what this calls for? by Thing+1 · · Score: 1
      Nice reference to "OMG ponies rule"; and also, there (of course) exists a relevant XKCD for:

      It's only a matter of time before Ponies totally and completely rule everything.

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
    10. Re:You know what this calls for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pony schools are far more intense than ours, especially in the maths and sciences.

      No kidding. If you want a really disturbing screencap to illustrate the point, consider that they're already up to special relativity.

    11. Re:You know what this calls for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pinkie Pie likes pink parties in My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas and Twinkle Wish Adventure.

    12. Re:You know what this calls for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A party isn't a party without a little Apple Jack Daniels.

    13. Re:You know what this calls for? by LiroXIV · · Score: 1

      A party isn't a party without a little Apple Jack Daniels.

      Hay bacon strips. Hay bacon strips. Hay bacon strips. Hay bacon strips. Hay bacon strips.

  2. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by crutchy · · Score: 2

    your nick should be NotQuiteAwake

  3. WebKit by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's interesting that the article implies the flaw is in WebKit rather than, say, JavaScript or Flash. So there'll need to be a similar patch made for Safari (which the article also briefly touches on).

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Frankly, that's impossible.

      Safari is perfect, like everything else Apple makes.

    2. Re:WebKit by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Not just webkit but also Google's Sandbox.

      One of the reasons I use Chrome and IE 9 is because of sandboxing. Firefox still does not support it, but there are ways around it. Java had sandboxing too from day 1 and we all know how well that turned out to be the last few years security wise.

    3. Re:WebKit by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      One thing I can't seem to find in these things is this: did they have ANY kind of AV installed? if so what kind? i know they use the latest version of the OS with all current patches installed (although someone pointed out the other day it looked to be Chrome 11 from the screencaps at pwn2own) but it would be nice to know if it had an AV like virtually every desktop on the planet or if they give them a machine clear of AV or antispy.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    4. Re:WebKit by garaged · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I "see" a lot of linux boxes on daily basis (yeah, that was right) and NONE of them has AV, some of the do have some kind of "enterprise protection", but unless you are talking about an email server, on linux you usually do not have any kind of AV running, and yet I (on daily basis again) use chrome and firefox a lot for fun and profit, so, an exploit for them is important for me, AV or not involved.

      --
      I'm positive, don't belive me look at my karma
    5. Re:WebKit by VortexCortex · · Score: 2

      One of the reasons I use Chrome and IE 9 is because of sandboxing. Firefox still does not support it, but there are ways around it. Java had sandboxing too from day 1 and we all know how well that turned out to be the last few years security wise.

      Such is the case when you compile data to machine-code at run-time, then flag it as executable and run it.

    6. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      AV's sweet spot is spotting known exploits by scanning files for signatures. Everything else is mostly just snake oil. You pay them money and they make you feel better with their elixir.

      AV software won't work well for Linux viruses because Linux exploits are mostly remote exploits. The AV software can't scan it and match any signatures, and once an exploit gets root access it quickly hides itself. It works better on Windows because the vector is usually attachments.

    7. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, I don't know which of the linked articles *you* read, but the one I read clearly stated that the first attack vector was a flaw in the Flash plug-in. Chrome's sandbox apparently was then unable to protect the system against the haywire Flash plug-in. So not a flaw in WebKit, to all probability, but three others in Chrome. The article didn't state whether they counted the flaw in the Flash plug-in, but even if they did there are probably at least two flaws in the sandbox.
      As it stands, it confirms what people have been saying for years: Flash shouldn't come pre-installed on computers, websites shouldn't rely on it (offer alternative functionality such as downloads or HTML 5 video) and even if you have it installed you should make sure it's turned off by default to minimise your exposure to Flash vulnerabilities. At this point Chrome does deserve credit because that is in fact possible in Chrome: menu - options - advanced - privacy - content - plugins - block all. As evidenced by that instruction, Chrome's options screen is the worst in history. It's nested too deep and a lot of things are in the wrong section to start with. Why should plug-in blocking be in the privacy section?
      Note however that like last time this appeared on /. still no vulnerability details have been provided; this is failing in /. and people should have waited shoving this out until there was more substance to the story.

    8. Re:WebKit by Mr+Z · · Score: 3, Informative

      Putting "Flash" under "Privacy" makes sense if you understand how much of the Flash out there really gets used. Flash apps can store a fair bit of data locally on your HD without setting a normal HTTP cookie, which makes tiny, invisible Flash apps handy for tracking purposes.

      While the average web surfer doesn't think about Flash in that way, it's not too surprising a company that makes its fortunes on ad revenue and customer profiling understands its real role on the Web.

      This is why I run flash-block, and only unblock the very occasional app and/or game I care to interact with, and not the half dozen other ones on the same page that don't seem to do anything interesting to me.

    9. Re:WebKit by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      I've heard you lot say that countless times, but I've never actually heard a Mac fanboi say it. Way more annoying.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    10. Re:WebKit by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Dont all browsers do this?

      Php is amazing fast as it is not pure interpretative. It is, but it simply calls DSO objects already compiled via Apache so the rendering engine itself is inside the server software at native C++ speeds.

      Couldn't javascript do this ... or is that what makes it insecure?

    11. Re:WebKit by drkstr1 · · Score: 1

      Umm, no. Access to a SharedObject is restricted by the application domain, and would make absolutely no sense for it to be used in this way, even if you could. Cookies are used for tracking. The only thing an SO is good for is storing larger amounts of data in a binary format (like a saved game, for example).

      --
      Fanboy Status: Apache Flex, C#, Eclipse, KDE, Pirate Party, Ron Paul, Slackware, Windows 7
    12. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cute opinion. Obviously you never had to have any of your servers PCI DSS certified for credit card processing.

    13. Re:WebKit by Mr+Z · · Score: 2

      And just how exactly does that stop FooCompany.com from tracking me on their website even if I have cookies disabled? The answer is: it exactly allows FooCompany.com to track me more thoroughly. In fact, Bank of America uses one of these Flash apps to identify the computer I'm logging in from. It will skip some of the extra authentication steps it normally does.

      The main use model I've heard is for these flash apps to store backup copies of cookies you might have blocked or deleted. Alternately, you can use this to throw some additional metadata into a URL or an http POST request, and you can now propagate this information across domains too. The main website hosts "tracker.swf" in their own domain (perhaps on an ad server that shares the domain but not the IP address), but it phones home via http to some other domain.

    14. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well, I don't know which of the linked articles *you* read, but the one I read clearly stated that the first attack vector was a flaw in the Flash plug-in.

      http://pwn2own.zerodayinitiative.com/status.html

      The specific exploits which were demonstrated as working are:

      Internet Explorer 8:

              CVE-2010-0248 : Microsoft Internet Explorer item Object Memory Corruption Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
              CVE-2010-3346 : Microsoft Internet Explorer HTML+Time Element outerText Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

      Firefox

              CVE-2009-3077 : Mozilla Firefox TreeColumns Dangling Pointer Vulnerability
              CVE-2010-2752 : Mozilla Firefox CSS font-face Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

      Webkit:
      (Chrome on Windows & Safari on OSX)

              CVE-2010-0050 : Apple Webkit Blink Event Dangling Pointer Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
              CVE-2011-0115 : Apple Safari WebKit Range Object Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

      These all allow the execution of arbitrary code on the user's machine, with at least the same access level as the user running the browser.

    15. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dont all browsers do this?

      Php is amazing fast as it is not pure interpretative. It is, but it simply calls DSO objects already compiled via Apache so the rendering engine itself is inside the server software at native C++ speeds.

      PHP does all of this on the server side, not the user agent side, so... what in the blue hell was your point, again?

    16. Re:WebKit by MisterMidi · · Score: 2

      Let me tell you, PHP is pretty fast for an interpreted language, but nowhere near any native language's speed. Try doing some simple string operations 1,000,000,000 times in a loop. While you're waiting, you can write, compile and run the equivalent in C++. And have a cup of coffee. As for the Dynamic Shared Objects (or Apache modules), I don't think you know what they are and what they do; you're probably confused with PHP's runtime. Also, I don't know how you got the idea that the rendering engine is inside the server software. The browser is the rendering engine. Unless you're using PHP to render images of course.

    17. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple fail security? That's unpossible!

    18. Re:WebKit by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      These all allow the execution of arbitrary code on the user's machine, with at least the same access level as the user running the browser.

      Which is the point of the sandbox. The rendering process does not have the same level of access as the user running the browser, it has a severely limited subset of access. The original question made sense, because Chrome and Safari both implement sandboxing, but they do it in different ways.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    19. Re:WebKit by icebraining · · Score: 2

      Do you run Chrome on a PCI DSS certified server? If not, then how the hell is that relevant?

    20. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've heard you lot say that countless times, but I've never actually heard a Mac fanboi say it. Way more annoying.

      You are kidding right? Of course they don't say that sentence, that is a barb at what they do, but if you have actually managed to avoid all the people that come out and defend Apple when critizied, you must be using a different Internets than me..

    21. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One thing I can't seem to find in these things is this: did they have ANY kind of AV installed? if so what kind? i know they use the latest version of the OS with all current patches installed (although someone pointed out the other day it looked to be Chrome 11 from the screencaps at pwn2own) but it would be nice to know if it had an AV like virtually every desktop on the planet or if they give them a machine clear of AV or antispy.

      (Posting as AC because I get tired of all the Mac Hate around here).

      My OS X box sits barenekked on the internet, "on" 24/7 since 2005 (minus the occasional reboot for this or that. No anti-anything. Oh, and I run Darwin Streaming Video Server and an ftp server with Anonymous (read-only) access, which access is publicly advertised on a website. That machine sits in my router's DMZ, so no help from the Router, either. That machine also happens to be my "main" computer, and the one on which I am typing this message.

      And on my other "always on" Mac, I run a WebDAV server with external access, and an internet-facing video surveillance system.

      Many have tried, all have failed. In fact, there are probably people trying in vain to escape my Anonymous jail right now...

      And it isn't like I run a fully-patched and up-to-date version of OS X, either. One machine (the first one) runs 10.4.11, and the other runs 10.5.8. And if anyone's interested, I use Safari as a browser almost exclusively. Chrome won't even run on my PPC Macs.

      BTW, not one of my several longstanding OS X-using friends, acquaintances, or clients runs AV software.

      OTOH, my fully patched Windows 7 "work" laptop spends half its CPU cycles running Avast, which I installed after I browsed to a "tech info" site with a ".ru" TLD (using a fully-patched version of IE9), and was INSTANTLY pwned (JUST for entering the site)... I STILL have vestiges of THAT little experience running around the laptop.

    22. Re:WebKit by JBMcB · · Score: 1

      This is why, for general web browsing, I use Firefox in a stripped-down VM. A bit extreme, but my main machine has never been infected by anything, and the VM only got hit once. Reverted to a backup image and I was back in business. I hear Sandboxie is nearly as effective as this setup, too.

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    23. Re:WebKit by Lennie · · Score: 1

      No PHP does not compile to native code, it would be faster if it did. Instead it is compiled to bytecode.

      Pretty much no1 except for Facebook compiles PHP to native code, they have 2 projects. One which compiles it as a single binary, which they probably use now and a newer project which tries to the it at runtine. But that project isn't done yet.

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
    24. Re:WebKit by Lennie · · Score: 1

      If the developer can create a zero-day exploit why would he/she ship a payload which is already recognised by the AV ?

      Also a lot of malware just gets a new version every 15 minutes by the push of a button. The AV vendors can't keep up. Detectionrates are going down.

      Just a few days ago someone asked me to look at a Windows machine which had malware, I uploaded the binary to virustotal and virscan and they both mentioned things like: 7 out of 34 scanners recognise it. Most of the virusscanners that did recognise it, I had never heared off.

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
    25. Re:WebKit by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Should have tried either Avast or Comodo IS (have been using Avast but recently switched back to Comodo as i like their terms better and they don't pop up crap like Avast does) as both of those have really nice sandboxing. Comodo goes one further if you'd like by tying into Comodo SecureDNS (which you can optionally have only run on Comodo Dragon in case you like your local DNS for gaming) and I've found that with a combo of Win 7 with ASLR and DEP along with Dragon sandboxing by the AV its pretty damned hard to infect a system. i know because i tried, i sent it to every crapsite and "look at teh tittiez!" topsite and garbage site i could find, then followed that with a half a dozen offline and online scanners and...nothing. Zilch zip nada squat bumpkiss. Which when you've got customers that can pick up more viruses than a Bangkok whore on coupon day is really damned helpful. Knock on wood but I haven't had to clean a single bug off anyone that is using that system and it takes less than 15 minutes to implement. But if you want one that is completely idiot proof Comodo also has Time Machine which makes a hidden snapshot store so if they DO somehow manage to find a way to screw something up you can just have them push the home key at boot and have it fixed in under 20 minutes, nice.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    26. Re:WebKit by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Ive heard people 'defend' Apple, as you put it. I haven't heard 'perfect' or 'totally secure', or even 'invented'. Well, I have, but it all came from the Haterade Addicts.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    27. Re:WebKit by drkstr1 · · Score: 1

      And just how exactly does that stop FooCompany.com from tracking me on their website even if I have cookies disabled? The answer is: it exactly allows FooCompany.com to track me more thoroughly. In fact, Bank of America uses one of these Flash apps to identify the computer I'm logging in from. It will skip some of the extra authentication steps it normally does.

      And how is this a bad thing? This is a totally valid use case for shared objects. If you don't want your flash app to store persistent data, you can disable this feature in the flash player security settings, or even white-list specific domains.

      The main use model I've heard is for these flash apps to store backup copies of cookies you might have blocked or deleted. Alternately, you can use this to throw some additional metadata into a URL or an http POST request, and you can now propagate this information across domains too. The main website hosts "tracker.swf" in their own domain (perhaps on an ad server that shares the domain but not the IP address), but it phones home via http to some other domain.

      I admit, storing backup copies of a cookie is a valid point, for people who may be informed enough to disable cookies, but not informed enough to disable shared objects. But I still don't think this negates the usefulness of an SO, nor the fact that is it much easier to accomplish these nefarious acts through other means.

      I have cookies enabled in my browser. I also have SOs enabled in my flash player. These are both very useful features to me. If I were worried about the websites I visit storing persistent data, I would disable them both.

      To imply that an SO is some big security hole is a fallacy, when in reality, they are more secure and more useful than the alternative.

      --
      Fanboy Status: Apache Flex, C#, Eclipse, KDE, Pirate Party, Ron Paul, Slackware, Windows 7
    28. Re:WebKit by Mr+Z · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying it's some big security hole. I'm saying it's the reason it ended up under the "Privacy" tab in Chrome, as opposed to somewhere else.

    29. Re:WebKit by drkstr1 · · Score: 1

      Touché good sir.

      --
      Fanboy Status: Apache Flex, C#, Eclipse, KDE, Pirate Party, Ron Paul, Slackware, Windows 7
    30. Re:WebKit by garaged · · Score: 1

      I could elaborate about this, but no need, icebraining already pointed out what is worth :D

      --
      I'm positive, don't belive me look at my karma
    31. Re:WebKit by smash · · Score: 1

      If you head over to the macrumors (or other mac) forums, you'll find that plenty of apple "fanbois" are some of the most demanding, critical users around.

      Far from "everything apple makes is perfect", there has been much gnashing of teeth over recent iOS updates, Lion, Apple dropping support for older macs on Mountain Lion, etc, etc.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    32. Re:WebKit by smash · · Score: 1

      Having AV installed is missing the point. AV is like an airbag in your car. If your brakes fail and you have an accident, it limits damage to you.

      The point of pwn2own is to find vulnerabilities in the browser. i.e., in the above scenario, you could compare it to making sure the brakes work on your car. AV definitions are never 100% up to date - the whole notion of a "0-day" exploit is that it hasn't been published, hence the AV defs will likely not catch it. If the browser was secure in the first place, AV would be irrelevant - no exploitable code = no exploit.

      The pwn2own guys aren't intending for this to be a "look how easily we can hack most users" thing - its more of a demonstration of how software can be broken, so that the root cause of the security problem (shitty exploitable applications) can be fixed.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    33. Re:WebKit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty much no1

      ...I stopped reading at the abbreviation "no1". I'm sorry, it isn't that you weren't making sense, I just couldn't take anything else you said seriously.

    34. Re:WebKit by Lennie · · Score: 1

      Comodo and Avast are both on the list of virustotal.com and virscan.org they both didn't recognise it.

      The whole AV-industry is a mess.

      I've already seen it happen years ago on my mailservers, you get a new virus-/malware-variant every 15 minutes or so. They aren't recognised yet by the AV-vendor. It takes more time for the AV-vendors to come up with a signature than the bad guys can generate new variants. By the time the AV vendor has a signature a new variant already exists and the bad guys stopped sending mail with the old malware/virus.

      The variants are created by software, the AV is useless.

      I don't run AV anymore, I've not had any problems either (and yes I do checks as well).

      99% of the problem is: do the software updates, disable all the plugins in your browser (like Adobe Acrobat and Java) and don't click on stupid attachemts.

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
  4. HAHAH TIME FOR PONIES!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Cupcakes for ALL!

  5. As the Slashdot Front Page Said at One Time... by Scarletdown · · Score: 3, Insightful

    OMG!!! Ponies!!!

    --
    This space unintentionally left blank.
    1. Re:As the Slashdot Front Page Said at One Time... by sixtyeight · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ugh, pwnies.

      Life imitates pun.

      --
      The Wolfpack Project: BitCoin + Crowdfunding = Political Accountability
    2. Re:As the Slashdot Front Page Said at One Time... by Mr+Z · · Score: 1

      Hey, folks, where's the screenshots at? Here's mine...

  6. Better April Fools Idea by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    Be Creative!

    Why don't you have a banner that says "Optimized for IE 6! Enjoy the new support the best browser available. . Link a whole bunch of articles including the one at arstechnica that showed IE 6 usage jumped last month.

    Go dig up some CSS from Slashdot 2002 era from slashcode. Let us officeworkers use it for a day or need to click "compatibility mode" for IE 8 and 9. You have the code?

    Maybe put the blue colors of XP mode in its colors.

  7. Re:Soon by binarylarry · · Score: 1

    OMG Pwnmemes?

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  8. Pwn2Own rocks. by LordLimecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The best thing about Pwn2Own is that it can be a shot of reality for anyone who gets overly confident in how awesome their favorite OS or browser is. Im a huge fan of Chrome and was hoping it would stand up without any 0-days, but its great that Pwn2Own brought to light the reality that there is no "secure web browsing experience" outside of Lynx (and Im willing to bet that could be 0-day'd too).

    1. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Interesting

      One downside is many are reporting on ZDNet, that the IE 9 exploit that was shown yesterday has new trojans already working for it.

      Since it is a 0 day exploit it is undetectable by any anti virus scanner yet and all you need to do is search under Google Image and you are instantly infected without clicking on anything.

      Google at least patched the last one in 24 hours, but I do not trust other browsers or users to patch that quick.

    2. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Teckla · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...but its great that Pwn2Own brought to light the reality that there is no "secure web browsing experience"...

      It seems to me there must be fundamental problems with the web browser technologies themselves. The web has been extremely popular for a long time now, and it seems no company, no matter how talented, no matter how serious, no matter how security focused, no matter how well staffed, no matter how much money, can make a secure web browser. This is getting ridiculous!

      Yes, I'm seriously thinking web technologies themselves are to blame. Overly complex? Over engineered? Fundamentally flawed? Complexity is the enemy of security. It's time for a re-think.

      What do other people think? Is it time to trash the old and invent something new, something mere mortals can embrace, and actually create secure implementations?

    3. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by c++0xFF · · Score: 2

      But, at least now we know there are three fewer 0-day exploits than before. That's something, isn't it?

    4. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now if MS went with Deny All by default instead of trusting every god damn piece of code on the net, IE might be secure enough to never have needed to be fixed. Anyone who leaves the doors open and actually invites everyone and their brother into the house is an idiot.

    5. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not so sure about the technologies, as the pace of browser development. Security, I think, takes time and thought, which the designers and programmers are not allowed in the interests of getting the next release with new features out.

    6. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      IE 9 is a good browser. Running everything is so IE 6 pre XP SP 2. Even IE 8 only runs signed activeX controls on intranets only. THe only downside is its sandbox is prone to memory corruption and is exploitable. FF does not even have a sandbox. IE 10 will fix this.

      It doesn't I reran the test at zdnet and I did not find any .exe in my %appdata/roaming folders.

      My guess is if it is not a flash exploit but a javascript one.

    7. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As AC above hinted at, and I believe I quote from some famous computer book or another, "If the structural properties of steel changed 20% every ten years, then Civil Engineering as a discipline would look a lot different."

      Point being, you can have breakneck advancement or inherently secure code, but not both at the same time.

    8. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by bloodhawk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Is it time to trash the old and invent something new, something mere mortals can embrace, and actually create secure implementations?

      The funny part about your post is your idea of a solution is actually the current problem. Technology is changing so fast that No one can have a modern popular functional end user browser while being secure. Security IS HARD, No matter how good a programmer you are you can't possibly imagine every possible type of new exploit technique that will be created tomorrow, next week or next year. It is even harder if every few years you have to rewrite everything, your idea would just bring about a raft of new security issues..

    9. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by wintermute1974 · · Score: 1

      You need to change your basic premise: There is no possible way to prove that software is bug free. The best you can do is to test a piece of software and then fix the problems that you find. Software verification and validation are tough problems.

    10. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, I'm seriously thinking web technologies themselves are to blame. Overly complex? Over engineered? Fundamentally flawed? Complexity is the enemy of security. It's time for a re-think.

      Complexity is required to perform arbitrary tasks in a dynamically programmable fashion -- which is essentially what modern HTML/Javascript essentially provides. You can't take something like that are "re-think" it into something less complex than some fundamental measure of the complexity of the application for which it is intended. Either the browser has to be able to perform those functions or users are going to have to accept a web with drastically limited capabilities.

      In a broader sense, this is a symptom of the annoying idea that some combination of clever engineering and design decisions can destroy complexity and replace it with something simple. This is superficially true but really what's happening is not that complexity is destroyed, only that it is hidden away -- it's a sort of "conservation of complexity": you can shuffle it around between various layers and (hopefully) hide it from the end user but it's still got to be there somewhere. Consider a cell-phone, it's an insanely complex system involving a all kinds of RF, some arcane protocol, software running on the mobile device, software running the backhaul -- just thinking about it for a second is enough to give you a headache. What the user sees when they dial a number isn't complex not because we've made all those things easy, only because we've relocated it somewhere else.,

      The same thing happens in the case of a browser -- I log into gmail and Google dynamically instructs my computer ("over the wire") how to create an entire GUI program that interacts with their server. That's nothing short of amazing and when you say "browsers are overly complex and over-engineering" what you are essentially saying that they should not be able to do that because that complexity came fundamentally and inexorably from the statement of the required functionality. No simple system could every do that ....

    11. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      google went high profile with their bounty - they have to patch immediately or the entire marketing scheme is shot to hell

    12. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, we could always just go back to newspapers, mail in envelopes with stamps, and broadcast radio/TV. That's how it was when I was a kid, and I don't recall a single browser exploit.

    13. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Cool IE10 will fix Firefox not having a sandbox. Shame we'll have to wait bloody ages for it. Wouldn't it be nice if Microsoft released some minor updates to its browser sometimes, like improving developer tools for those of us unfortunate enough to have to use it exclusively for debugging.

    14. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by utkonos · · Score: 1

      You're new to the intertubes, huh? Lynx has been as unsafe as any browser from time to time.

    15. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by sFurbo · · Score: 1

      It is a corrolary of Gödels incompleteness theorem that, if the virus detection is not allowed to change the OS, it is impossible to make a virus detection program that can find all viruses that change the OS. It is not just hard to make a secure computer, it is impossible. You might be able to make it arbitrarily hard to crack, but you can't make it impossible. There is no secure implementation.

    16. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by BZ · · Score: 1

      There _is_ a fundamental problem with web technologies. It's called "web developers want more features". So browsers add features, and then you get combinatorial explosion of feature interactions and resulting complexity.

      You can, of course, try to trash the old and invent something new. It's been tried; see XHTML2. Good luck with that!

    17. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      War of the Worlds. Massive meatspace attack, and it didn't even mean to be.

    18. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Thing+1 · · Score: 1

      The funny part about your post is your idea of a solution is actually the current problem.

      As has been true of the Simpsons for some time, there is often a relevant XKCD comic.

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
    19. Re:Pwn2Own rocks. by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Hand-waving nonsense.

  9. Firewall by Deus.1.01 · · Score: 0

    DAMNIT!

    SHE BROKE THE WALL AGAIN!

    *yeah that really makes no senze but I've had two fingers of single malt so stay with me on this one*

    --
    My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
    1. Re:Firewall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually got the reference so I must be AT LEAST as drunk as you are.

  10. Sandboxed? Without hardware VM support? Riiiight. by VortexCortex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The code isn't in a sandbox if it can escape.

    A lot of (desktop) hardware supports virtualization at the hardware level -- This doesn't mean executing a different set of opcodes, it means running an OS inside of an OS. We need hypervisory control at the application level. As long as your application code is running in the same environment as everything else with no hardware supported barriers, then it's not actually in a sandbox.

    We compile sections of JavaScript to machine code in data memory, mark the resulting data as code and execute it. It only takes one well placed buffer overflow to get some of your memory corrupted, before data is executed as code. The corruption need not result from JavaScript to affect the JS engine. Additionally, if said JavaScript or HTML or ANY untrusted source of data is being used by native code at the same security level as the application then any bug in that native code (eg: flash, SVG, HTML5 rendering, video/sound codecs, etc) can be an open door out of the "sandbox". This is similar to how such a bug in kernel level code can give you kernel level access... Such is the case for application level code as well.

    Data Execution Prevention (DEP) can be used to prevent executing data as code (eg to prevent buffer overflow data from being executed), but since the design of JavaScript makes implementations so slow and we're trying to do so much with it we actually need to execute the data as code. To gain performance we forfeit one of best tools that a "sandbox" can have.

    Many that gloat over their browser performance benchmarks wilfully trade security for speed, leaving other more sensible individuals (who may instead throw hardware at a speed issue) without an option... Better browser code can't execute "faster". The hardware runs at the same speed. It can only execute less. That is: more efficiently... More speed requires better hardware, not software.

    I would welcome a slower software only VM option (no just in time compiling to machine code), this way hardware DEP could be used to enforce sandboxing more strictly. Until then: My browser runs in its own OS within a hardware supported VM. I start from a fresh known-good VM image before I do anything important on the web. THAT'S a sandbox. Consequently, these restrictions mean I won't do anything important on today's mobile devices...

    P.S.
    Security researcher red-flags bolded for your convenience.

  11. Re:Soon by Deus.1.01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Its not a meme...we're just celebrating the fact that we live in a universe were we can watch a MLP franchise without being unironic as fuck.

    --
    My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
  12. Re:Soon by Deus.1.01 · · Score: 2

    and the unintentional double negative means, good night.

    --
    My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
  13. Re:Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You can't fix stupid. The pony meme will continue until the next braindead fad thing grabs their attention.

  14. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    You missed the key issue.

    A browser exploit is just that - an browser (application) flaw.

    Did any OS allow this to become an actual exploit, and if so, which OS?

  15. Pwn2Own? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Wasn't the word "pwn" derived from "own" to begin with? That would make "Pwn2own" seem to be a bit redundant, i.e. that is to say somewhat unnecesarily superfluous and verbose; lacking in the concise.

    1. Re:Pwn2Own? by flimflammer · · Score: 1

      The name comes from the fact you get the device you "pwn". So you "pwn" the device in order to literally own it.

    2. Re:Pwn2Own? by Fatalis · · Score: 1

      This is the etymological fallacy: confusing the etymology of a word (where the word came from) with its meaning. "Pwn" is derived from "own" but has a different meaning.

      --
      Deus est fatalis
    3. Re:Pwn2Own? by allo · · Score: 1

      no, it does not. either i owned you, or i pwned you, same thing, but fat fingers.

    4. Re:Pwn2Own? by swilde23 · · Score: 1

      Unless "own" is referring to the reward that you are going to own (as in, under your possession).

      --
      There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand this sig, and those that beat up people who do.
  16. Re:Sandboxed? Without hardware VM support? Riiiigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's also possible to break out of hardware VMs. Why? Because there's no such thing as a hardware VM. There's hardware-enhanced VMs, but there's still driver and other code which has to interact with the guest OS, thus opening vectors for attack with a much larger attack surface than between two discrete boxes. There have been such exploits published, there are no doubt many unpublished, and there will be more in the future.

    Sorry to rain on your parade.

  17. only 60k? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    really?
    no wonder why the black market is flourishing
    they should really increase the rewards
    if they want to stay ahead of the curve

  18. Re:Sandboxed? Without hardware VM support? Riiiigh by jdogalt · · Score: 3, Informative

    To further rain on the "VMs, even hardware ones, aren't exploitable" parade, the history of hacking the PS3 is always a fun read-

    http://wiki.ps2dev.org/ps3:rsx

    "
    FIFO workaround

    The hack consists of asking the Hypervisor to return without waiting for a blit to end. After the Hypervisor returns there is a small length of time during which the FIFO or FIFO registers can be modified before the GPU has finished reading the command. This will occur when a large blit is decomposed into many smaller 1024×1024 blits by the Hypervisor. The last operation pushed to the FIFO by the Hypervisor is a wait for the GPU engine to go idle. By skipping this operation, it is possible to enqueue more commands to the FIFO for the GPU to execute. So the hack consists in either patching the last operation with a NOP, or changing the FIFO write pointer to stop earlier.
    "

  19. Re:Soon by flimflammer · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It's not a meme.

  20. Re:Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Its not a meme...we're just celebrating the fact that we live in a universe were we can watch a MLP franchise without being unironic as fuck.

    This.

    We live in a universe in which the creators of the cartoon can put the equations that explain time dilation (at constant acceleration) into a 2-second cameo (at 14:22 into Season 2, Episode 20 - "It's About Time") that leads into a character coming to the conclusion that she has to stop time. Every equation on that blackboard is real. (The thing that looks like a percent sign is a gamma-sub-zero, etc.)

    And in which we can have it all hashed out and documented within 12 hours of the show being aired this morning.

    When we were in college, we had to explain to our parents why we still loved Bugs Bunny, and then, why we loved Futurama. Now it's a new generation's turn to explain to us why we think MLP is funny.

    Obligatory Hack: Pinkie Pie? In my computer?

  21. Re:Soon by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 2

    There's a difference between an internet meme from a fandom. Lolcats, advice animals, or rage comics are memes. Browncoats, Trekkies, Whovians, ect. are clearly not. Guess where ponies fall?

    We like a particular show. That isn't much different than any other fan group.

  22. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by pushing-robot · · Score: 1

    Wait, I thought pink was the new black.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  23. Re:Soon by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 1

    Huh, that's a pretty neat catch. That's got to be one of the cooler Easter eggs I've seen in a while. I'm always a bit baffled by how much some people can find in that show...I have a hard enough time just trying to find Derpy...and I usually can't even do that until I see a screenshot pointing it out.

  24. More importantly by lanner · · Score: 1

    That guy just got himz a j-o-b.

  25. Re:Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Huh, that's a pretty neat catch. That's got to be one of the cooler Easter eggs I've seen in a while. I'm always a bit baffled by how much some people can find in that show...I have a hard enough time just trying to find Derpy...and I usually can't even do that until I see a screenshot pointing it out.

    The first one jumped out at anyone who ever took first year physics (or even AP physics in high school if they were lucky). The other lines were trickier.

    Punchline: That particular bit got sussed out a few hours ago on The Imageboard That Shall Not Be Named. Yes, that one. With the four, and the ch, and the an. And the /mlp instead of the /second-letter-of-the-alphabet. Thread was /res 513617

  26. Or maybe, just maybe by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can to accept that virtual security is the same as physical security and cannot be perfect in the real world.

    See with physical security, we've known this forever. You can't design the unbeatable system. No matter what you design, someone can figure out a way to overcome it, through brute force if necessary. You can't secure something to perfection. So you don't try, you design security to repel any likely threat you you rely on defense in depth so that if one layer fails, the whole system doesn't fail.

    However many geeks seem to have talked themselves in to the idea that you can have perfect virtual security. Just use browser X on OS Y and there is no way anything evil can get you, kind of thing. Well I think that is false. You can't have perfect virtual security. Instead, you just have to make it as good as you can against the threat you are likely to face, and then have defense in depth.

    Patch your OS and browser, run an on access virus scanner, run a client firewall, have a network firewall, run as a deprivileged user, use things like ASLR and DEP, be safe about your browsing, monitor your system, etc. Don't rely on a single thing to keep you safe, rely on many. Realize that all your layers have defects. Fix them when found, but understand there is no perfection.

    This whining that nobody can build something perfect is just stupid. No, they can't, we never have, never will. Deal with it. We don't move out of our houses because they aren't perfectly secure, we aren't going to stop using our computer because they aren't perfectly secure. Get good layered defense and stay on top of it. That is all you can do, all we've ever been able to do.

    1. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's impossible to get perfect security in the real world because of practical limits that result from physical laws. In a computing environment, we choose the laws that underpin it! We should be able to come up with technologies to provide a web experience which also allow a simple, perfectly secure browser to exist.

      This may require some sacrifices. For example, we might have to prohibit embedded scripts in Turing-complete languages like Javascript (or just about anything else), so that a browser can analyse them to determine whether they will halt. We might have to give up flash widgets, or blink tags. But we ought to be able to write a damn document-display system that doesn't treat malformed data as executable code, and run it.

    2. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by icebraining · · Score: 1

      You can, but no one will want to use it. Security doesn't trump features for most people's use cases for the web. Including mine. Particularly since you'd have to give up images too.

    3. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by Teckla · · Score: 1

      This whining that nobody can build something perfect is just stupid.

      I don't think anyone reasonable is asking for perfection -- I think that's a red herring designed to denigrate people who suggest that perhaps -- just perhaps -- web browser technology is below reasonable expectations.

      For most pieces of software, some reasonable level of defects is expected, otherwise software development costs would be extremely high, and we would be using software with a lot less features. Software having some bugs is the trade-off the vast majority of us are willing make.

      However, I think web browsers should be held to a higher standard, because of the costly damage that can result. Merely browsing through Google Image search results should not leave a Trojan on your system capable of stealing your bank account number and password next time you visit your bank web site -- which is an example of one of the zero day exploits recently uncovered.

      Other pieces of software that should be held to higher standards are ssh and sshd (for obvious reasons), properly functioning file system security, embedded software in medical devices, etc.

      I should make it clear that I'm not entirely blaming the browser makers -- obviously, enough users are complicit enough that we have what we have: a pile of zero day exploits for the three most popular browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome) -- and like an iceberg, there are probably more -- a lot more -- hidden out of sight, but being actively sought by people with bad intentions.

      Users are not demanding a high enough level of quality -- in my opinion. Severe browser exploit problems have been an ongoing problem for years and years. I'm astonished anyone thinks this is acceptable, and some people even excuse it in the name of progress! As a long-time developer, I can assure you that software being riddled with security bugs is not a precondition for progress.

      Getting back to the real point of my post, which I'm not sure was clear enough: I think web technologies are partially to blame. I'm not talking about the implementations here (well, that too, I guess...), I'm talking about the specifications being sufficiently FUBAR that it's really, really hard to create a secure implementation that also performs well.

      I'm not a professional web developer, and I'm not extremely knowledgeable about JavaScript, but I do know enough about the subject to know that JavaScript is designed in such a way that producing a high performing implementation is crazy difficult. (This is besides the language being riddled with horrible warts). Outrageous complexity is apparently necessary to produce high performance *cough* JavaScript implementations, and by definition means it will be riddled with bugs, because complexity is the enemy of security.

      It could be that I'm talking out of my hat due to lack of deep familiarity with the technologies involved. My experience these days is primarily C and Java programming, but I know at least a half dozen languages, and I've been a professional software developer for more decades than I care to count.

      But I do know that, when given a complex set of requirements, I break things down into layers, in which each layer is individually grokkable by a single good developer -- if need be -- so that security and stability problems become a lot more obvious. I'm not sure that web technologies are designed well enough to allow for this layering -- probably for performance reasons. And thus, I question the specifications themselves. Some specifications -- such as JavaScript -- will never lend themselves to an implementation that is both clean (i.e., secure) and high performance.

    4. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 1

      Why, exactly? Seems to me that since there is no code in an image that needs to be excecuted, you could easily come up with an image parser for which all chunks of code read are matched to make sure the contents fall within acceptable limits, and if not the parser either gives up or clamps them to reasonable values(to display part of a corrupted image).
      Sure, it might be slower than insecure parsers, perhaps by a factor of two or more... But with todays multicore, high-end processors, the reduced speed would likely not be noticed by the user, and not cause any issues.

    5. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by icebraining · · Score: 2

      In theory, you can develop a safe image parser. But in theory, you could develop a safe code sandbox too.

      In practice, both are hard problems. Image parsers didn't get exploited because they traded safety for speed, but because the people who wrote them made mistakes and/or didn't consider some edge case, as humans always do.

    6. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by smash · · Score: 1

      You forgot the essential aspect: have backups. At some point, it is likely that if you have valuable data, you may well be hacked, irrespective of whatever precautions you have taken. Humans are fallible, and sooner or later someone is going to put a trojan out there that will fool you, and you will get owned.

      Make sure you have backups (so you can recover) and that any confidential data is encrypted (to minimize likelihood of stolen data being used against you).

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    7. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by smash · · Score: 1

      ...which means, we need to make automated code analysis tools better. If humans can't write secure code, then the compiler shouldn't trust that they write secure code. We need tools to evaluate those edge cases and automatically test functions against "unexpected" data to verify whether or not they will *always* behave as expected.

      I mean there are already compiler warnings that catch a lot of "dodgy" coding habits, unfortunately a lot of people just turn them off and carry on.

      I'm not saying this is an easy task, but history has proven, as suggest above, that humans can't reliably write secure code. Certain humans can audit code, and may catch a lot of bugs. But humans are slow and prone to mistakes.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    8. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 1

      Very good point, and it should work well -- Any mistakes in the analysis tools will (hopefully) not cause problems with the same mistakes in the actual code, so you'd likely end up making both pieces of code more secure and robust as bugs in one piece of code are brought to light by the other.

    9. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by smash · · Score: 1

      As I said it won't be easy, but an "insecure" code audit tool isn't itself being directly attacked, it merely needs to generate data for function testing and validate results.

      So long as we can capture the process of what a code audit is looking for and how, a program can scan through code far faster than a human, and is far less likely to mis-read characters that look similar, overlook punctuation that alters the functionality of code, etc.

      Defining *what* to look for in code is (I suspect) the tricky part.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    10. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Image parsers didn't get exploited because they traded safety for speed

      Yes, they did, because they were written in C or C++, which allows memory corruption and is how these image parsers were exploited. There are languages that don't allow memory corruption (Java, C#, just about any scripting language, etc.), but they aren't used for performance reasons.

    11. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by icebraining · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but no. Firstly, there are more reasons besides performance to avoid Java, C# or scripting languages; portability, for example.

      Secondly, while the language themselves (as in, syntax + semantics) may not suffer from them, the language implementations (the JVM, the CLR, etc) do.

    12. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by icebraining · · Score: 1

      But most compilers don't have enough information to know what you meant to write, so they can't figure out what is the expected behavior.

      There are formal provers like Coq that help with that, but they require both knowledge that most programmers don't have and plenty of effort in specifying what's expected of every piece of code - effort that takes away from implementing new stuff.

      Now, imagine there are two teams writing a browser: one formally verifies everything and releases an extremely secure browser that supports HTML3 and BMP images, and another who releases a browser which supports HTML5, Javascript, JPEGs, etc.
      Now tell me which one you think will be successful.

    13. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Firstly, there are more reasons besides performance to avoid Java, C# or scripting languages; portability, for example.

      Java is portable and scripting languages are portable, with fewer porting problems than C/C++. C# with .NET is meant to replace the Win32 API, so if that's your target, portability isn't a concern.

      Secondly, while the language themselves (as in, syntax + semantics) may not suffer from them, the language implementations (the JVM, the CLR, etc) do.

      But by using the memory-safe languages, much less code is created that suffers these problems. If you look at the Java API, for example, a lot of the API is written in Java itself.

    14. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by icebraining · · Score: 1

      Java is portable and scripting languages are portable, with fewer porting problems than C/C++.

      So, what's the JVM for iOS?

      C# with .NET is meant to replace the Win32 API, so if that's your target, portability isn't a concern.

      Which in many cases - like, for example, browsers - is.

      But by using the memory-safe languages, much less code is created that suffers these problems. If you look at the Java API, for example, a lot of the API is written in Java itself.

      And yet it still suffers from buffer overflows - in their image parsers, no less!

      There's no silver bullet, and managed languages certainly aren't one. Languages with decent typing systems (so, not Java or C#) are better because they can solve a lot at compile time, but they're still not perfect.

    15. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by Raenex · · Score: 1

      So, what's the JVM for iOS?

      That's Apple's decision to restrict their platform. Also, iOS is Objective C when it comes to libraries, not straight C.

      Which in many cases - like, for example, browsers - is.

      So image parsing bugs written in C are because of a portability problem for IE, which only runs on Windows?

      And yet it still suffers from buffer overflows - in their image parsers, no less!

      Because they either wrote the underlying implementation in C or used a C library. If anything, it should be a lesson to stop writing code in C unless you really need it.

    16. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by icebraining · · Score: 1

      That's Apple's decision to restrict their platform.

      Irrelevant. C is still more portable.

      Also, iOS is Objective C when it comes to libraries, not straight C.

      Objective-C is a proper superset of C, meaning any program or library written in C is a valid Obj-C program.

      So image parsing bugs written in C are because of a portability problem for IE, which only runs on Windows?

      The fact that C# could be a valid choice for IE in no way invalidates my position that portability is a valid reason for choosing C/C++ over C#.

      Obviously, if your browser isn't cross-platform, portability isn't an issue. But most browsers are cross-platform.

      Because they either wrote the underlying implementation in C or used a C library. If anything, it should be a lesson to stop writing code in C unless you really need it.

      And in many cases - like when you want your library to run on mostly everything - you really need it.

    17. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Irrelevant. C is still more portable.

      I'll grant you that C is the lingua franca of operating systems, but I do think it's worth mentioning that for iOS it's because Apple is running it like an iron-fisted dictator, and preventing developers from choosing the best technology as they see fit.

      The fact that C# could be a valid choice for IE in no way invalidates my position that portability is a valid reason for choosing C/C++ over C#.

      It does when browsers like IE fall prey to the same bugs, and you were speaking generally about, "In theory, you can develop a safe image parser. Image parsers didn't get exploited because they traded safety for speed, but because the people who wrote them made mistakes and/or didn't consider some edge case, as humans always do."

      There's no reason an image parser in IE should fall prey to a memory corruption bug. There's no reason it should happen on iOS, either, if there was actually choice allowed.

    18. Re:Or maybe, just maybe by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 1

      Yes. I agree completely.

  27. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    he said hackers. he didn't say anything about the damn pony.

    reading comprehension: it's hard when you're stupid!

  28. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    You missed the key issue.
    A browser exploit is just that - an browser (application) flaw.

    You're missing the key issue- the browser is just the attack vector.

    The article is talking about one guy who used a chain of 3 Chrome-only exploits (not using any 3rd party addons/plugins and not using any OS bugs/exploits) to fully escape the sandbox which means this is not an OS specific exploit.

    To answer your question- if you consider the ability to take any and all actions as if you were the user running the browser to be an exploit, then yes all of them.

  29. Re:Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I cannot believe how many retards with mod points are into little ponies. I don't give two shits that the time dilation equations were in some episode.

  30. Re:Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be nice if every children show used the real equations, in the spirit of promoting STEM education and hiring some additional people from the field to the entertainment industry.

  31. Re:Soon by blind+biker · · Score: 1

    celebrating the fact that we live in a universe were we can watch a MLP franchise without being unironic as fuck.

    I am guessing you meant to write "without being ironic as fuck"

    Brohoof?

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  32. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by realityimpaired · · Score: 2

    You didn't read the article, did you? The Chrome bugs were used to break free of the sandbox, and run arbitrary code on the operating system, which was a fully patched and up-to-date Windows 7.

  33. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An browser? Is that the program an hero would use to view webpages and stuff?

  34. Re:Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Listen to this guy, he's got the right of it: we've got opportunity in this very community...

  35. yay ponies!! by prettything · · Score: 1

    finally : )

    --
    bring bak the ponies!!
    1. Re:yay ponies!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      finally : )
      --
      bring bak the ponies!!

      Thread's long over, but just for you, and for anyone still reading, the possible direct inspiration for Pinkie Pie's choice of handle:

      Haters gonna Hate, Pwnies gonna Pwn! (Spoiler: 1:25-1:35, but it's only three hilarious minutes long, and it's best watched from the start, especially if you enjoy the Prodigy and/or TF2.)

  36. Re:Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >unironic as fuck
    'sincere'?

  37. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The phrase 'the sandbox' is the unclear bit. Chromium (and therefore, presumably, Chrome) implements sandboxing in five different ways:
    • chroot
    • SELinux
    • Capsicum
    • Windows ACLs
    • Mac sandbox APIs

    The question is whether the flaws are in one of these implementations, in the OS APIs that these depend on, or in the higher-level code that's shared among all platforms. The Windows sandboxing implementation is the most complex (about 20KLoC, while the Capsicum implementation is the simplest at around 100LoC) so it presents the largest attack surface.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  38. Re:Sandboxed? Without hardware VM support? Riiiigh by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

    Wow, you wrote a very long post to say 'I don't know what I am talking about'.

    Every process is sandboxed in a hardware VM. It is using a different instruction set which is restricted from doing anything related to I/O. No process can do anything other than touch its own memory and issue system calls. If it wants to open a socket or access the filesystem, it must issue a system call and then the kernel decides whether to permit this.

    Modern browsers (including Chrome) make use of this by running the rendering process - including the JavaScript - inside a separate process that has a restricted set of rights. Typically, this means no access to the filesystem. As such, even if the JavaScript engine has an arbitrary code execution vulnerability, all that the attacker can do is run code inside the process - any system calls that try to touch the rest of the system will just return failure. You also need to find a bug in the sandbox, meaning either a vulnerability in the OS, or a flaw in the policy defined by the browser.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  39. Re:Who? Did what? For HOW much? and WHY? by tepples · · Score: 2

    Apart from your joke about an imageboard meme related to someone who was cyberbullied into suicide:

    Not everybody was brought up speaking English. Other languages' articles (e.g. een, ein, un) don't drop the N before a vowel. I bet grandparent's English is better than your Tlingit.

  40. Hippocracy by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

    Tell them they must stop this hippocracy.

    This might be the first time I've seen a misspelling of "hypocrisy" used as a legitimate pun (hippo=horse, cracy=government). And it isn't even a copypasta (or at least one indexed by Google). Bravo.

    1. Re:Hippocracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps he's referring to Houyhnhnms as opposed to Yahoos.

  41. Vector animations and games by tepples · · Score: 1

    websites shouldn't rely on [Flash Player] (offer alternative functionality such as downloads or HTML 5 video)

    For a vector animation or a game that was made in Flash or another SWF-making tool, what would such "downloads" be, other than the SWF itself? A vector animation such as "Badger Badger Badger" would become ten times bigger in bytes if automatically converted to WebM or MP4, and a game would become a playthrough video.

  42. Fandom vs. meme by tepples · · Score: 1

    Browncoats, Trekkies, Whovians, ect. are clearly not.

    But are Browncoats, Trekkers, and Whovians a decidedly different demographic from the one that the series' producers originally targeted?

    We like a particular show. That isn't much different than any other fan group.

    Milhouse is not a meme. "The Simpsons has a fandom" is not a meme. "MLP:FIM has a periphery fandom" is not a meme. But constantly making in-jokes that only "bronies" (the periphery fandom of MLP:FIM) would get is a meme.

    1. Re:Fandom vs. meme by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Browncoats, Trekkies, Whovians, ect. are clearly not.

      But are Browncoats, Trekkers, and Whovians a decidedly different demographic from the one that the series' producers originally targeted?

      ..The fuck does that have to do with anything?

      What's more, Lauren Faust has said several times that she intended the show to be entertaining for the whole family; that "it's for little girls" idea behind previous shows was a major reason that those cartoons sucked ass. They were condescending and underestimated girls' intelligence and maturity, because the people making it just told themselves "it's for little girls," and it showed in their work..
        MLP:FiM was intended to reach beyond the "girls' cartoon" ghetto right from its very inception.

    2. Re:Fandom vs. meme by tepples · · Score: 1

      Thank you for correcting me on the franchise's targeting.

  43. the zero-day buzzword by sqldr · · Score: 1

    it's getting annoying. 0-day means exploited the day the vulnerability is exposed. You can have a 0-day exploit. There is no such thing as a 0-day vulnerability.

    --
    I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
    1. Re:the zero-day buzzword by Pahroza · · Score: 1

      So the guy or gal who discovers a vulnerability, writes some malicious code around it, and then throws both into the wild, isn't using a 0 day exploit?

    2. Re:the zero-day buzzword by sqldr · · Score: 1

      they are doing exactly that. they have created a 0-day exploit for a vulnerability.

      --
      I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
  44. Re:Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The current generation seems to be mostly full of beta males. What else could explain MLP's fan base...

  45. Re:Sandboxed? Without hardware VM support? Riiiigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Run the JavaScript in a separate process as a nobody user, with all ability to make system calls completely disabled, except for a socket used to communicate with the browser process. Now, there is no way to corrupt the memory of the JS engine from a browser bug, and reciprocally even if the JS engine is compromised all it can do it talk through the socket. Perfect, no, more effective yes, easy to implement yes.

  46. Re:Sandboxed? Without hardware VM support? Riiiigh by Thing+1 · · Score: 1

    It's also possible to break out of hardware VMs. Why? Because there's no such thing as a hardware VM. There's hardware-enhanced VMs, but [...]

    I have the image of software breaking out of hardware VMs and becoming a person (perhaps in a robot first, then after Gepetto...).

    Sorry to parade on your rain. :)

    --
    I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
  47. GOOD POINT(s)... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well said, & pretty wise: Personally, the Operating Systems we use get better all the time, & are getting more 'solid' security-wise vs. bugs & just how they 'let a user go @ it' (ala least privelege for example, even Windows adopted it, as it IS a good idea to protect one from ONE'S OWN SELF)...

    HOWEVER, as I *think* you're pointing out?

    It's the apps that are problematic mostly/more, & bear the "intrusion gateways"/holes/chinks in the armor...

    * Scripting documents for example, & I don't mean just things like MS' OLE compound ones (Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, Access DBs, PowerPoint presentations etc. ) or Adobe PDF's even, but even the WEB's HMTL?

    I never thought it was a good idea, & here we are today + for years now, dealing with the consequences in 'malicious code' in them!

    APK

    P.S.=> There is some "good in the bad" though - the holes still present do keep jobs going, even though I would rather have a "bulletproof" application & OS world out there (probably will NEVER happen, just like perfectly 'good' human beings never will, morality-wise, because @ times, desperation can make the best folks go 'bad')... apk