MacBook Air Hacked In Two Minutes

[Political Heretic]

Source: Information Week

Mac OS X's reputation for security was tarnished Thursday when a team of researchers from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) managed to hack a MacBook Air in two minutes using a zero-day vulnerability in Apple's Safari 3.1 Web browser.

The ISE security researchers -- Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel -- were participating in the "PWN to OWN" competition at the CanSecWest security conference, which began Wednesday in Vancouver, British Columbia.

...

Contest participants had their choice of trying to hack an Apple MacBook Air running OS X 10.5.2, a Sony Vaio VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10, or a Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1. During the first day, when attacks were limited to network attacks on the operating system, no one managed to compromise any of the systems.

That changed Thursday when attacks on default client-side applications -- Web browser, e-mail, IM -- were allowed. The ISE team won $10,000 from security firm TippingPoint Technologies for compromising the MacBook Air.

The undisclosed vulnerability in Safari 3.1 has been shown to Apple and no further information about it will be revealed until Apple can issue an update, TippingPoint said.

Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000434

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Not really posting this to start some PC vs. Mac war. I just found the article interesting and newsworthy. I think MACs are better quality products, but I also think much of the "bragging" done by Mac users about their invincible systems and perfection have to do with having only a tiny fraction of the market share.

[WCGreen]

1. What's the point in hacking something with two percent market

penetration...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. That small market penetration has protected Mac ...

Until now, anyhow...

It just isn't very lucrative...

:shrug:

[ConcernedCanuk]

16. I agree with you - hackers, especially those that wish to spread viruses and worms want QUANTITY.

.
.
.

So when one wants to infect/control a whole lot of computers, go Microsoft because good or bad,

Microsoft DOES have the giant share of the operating systems out here.

So that's where the hackers are gonna concentrate - on the biggest provider.

So your post is NOT bullshit.

Some others are though

But you knew that.

[Elwood P Dowd]

7. What you just posted is total bullshit.

Are you still living in the 1990s?

[merwin]

8. It's up to a whopping 10% now

:)

[Elwood P Dowd]

9. And what is BMW's market share?

I'm sure Al Gore, a member of the Apple Board, loves you Michael Dell and Bill Gates groupies.

[merwin]

11. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I run Ubuntu 8.04 on my primary machine.

Vista on my media center machine, which aslo happens to be a Mac Mini running 10.5 w/Boot Camp

I am far from a Bill Gates groupie :)

[Lennon]

13. Al Gore also praised Wal-Mart

Will Al Gore love me If I start shopping at Wal-Mart?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13840755

Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday praised Wal-Mart for a newfound focus on environmental sustainability, saying the retailer showed there is no conflict between the environment and the economy.

“I believe that this kind of commitment is so important that the rest of the world is likely to be listening and learning,” Gore told an auditorium of more than 800 Wal-Mart employees, suppliers and outside experts who are advising the company.

Chief Executive Lee Scott last October said Wal-Mart would become a leader in sustainability, with three goals: reducing waste to zero, moving toward using only renewable energy and offering more products made in a way that preserves the environment.

:)

[WCGreen]

14. If the Mac programmers would design a Tax Program that worked

as well as the Windows based one I use now, I would gladly jump on the Mac bandwagon...

But you know what, I can spend 1,200 and get a really decent machine that runs all my business software, let's me surf the net just fine, helps me organize my schedule and if I wish to dabble in creative venues, I can without having to spend 3,000 for a Mac system...

But if I made my money designing really cool and neat shit, then I would spend the money on a Mac...

[frylock]

19. you jobs fanboyz aren't any better..

i know it hurts to admit that mac is vulnerable to hacking as well, so quit with the name drops and try to stay on topic. was the airbook hacked or not?

[Recursion]

2. If only there were a free, stable, secure, open-source operating system out there...

...that ran on PC, Mac, Sun, DEC, and SGI platforms. Alas.

[cliffordu]

5. Yeah, I know. It's tragic, really. I wish for one that had a simple

command line interface when I feel like just using that.

Or a gui.

But secure from the getgo is key. Maybe one that has only had two remote holes in the default install, in more than 10 years......but alas. I guess it is all for naught.

Sigh.
:dunce:

[merwin]

6. Sorry to inform you, but vulnerabilities exist in Linux as well.

NO platform that allows any kind of access/input into it is immune.

[Recursion]

10. Good thing I use OpenBSD

Linux is far from the be-all, end-all of free UNIX-like operating systems.

[merwin]

12. Because OpenBSD is impervious to attack.

:sarcasm:

[Occulus]

15. Well, considering OSX takes a lot fom BSD...

:rofl:

Seriously, the only secure OS is one which lacks removable storage capability and has no network connection. In other words, a useless one.

edit: I take that last back. There are actually many computing devices, which use their own OS and have no network capability or removable storage in the way we think of a desktop or laptop as having those things, which aren't vulnerable to the sorts of viruses we encounter in the tubez.

[merwin]

17. It's still insecure!

It's just that someone would have to sit at the computer and type for days recreating the virus code, just to take down the one computer.

Pretty pointless though :)

[RoyGBiv]

18. Yeah ...

'Tis a pity.

:evilgrin:

[Lennon]

3. MacBook Air first to fall in hacking contest

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3074206