MacBook Air, the easiest one of the three
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Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:29:09 GMT |
| Author
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Nigel Wright |
| Category
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Technology |
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That's right; Mac OS are the easiest to hack, according to Charlie Miller, analyst – ISE (Independent Security Evaluators). Charlie not only proved by hacking the MacBook running the OS X, 10.5.2 version, in less than two minutes, but also won $10k and a new laptop.
Sponsorors had put up three laptops with different operating system and each patched up with the latest updates. They were made available to any one who could hack into the system. The three day hacking contest was organized at CanSecWest conference, Mariott Renaissance, Vancouver, British Columbia. A USD 20k cash prize would have been paid for successful applicants on day one, USD 10k on day two and USD 5K on the last day.
No one was successful on the 1st day, but on the 2nd day Charlie Miller breached into the MacBook OS, in just about less than two minutes. Charlie Miller did not share the vulnerability as he was bonded by the nondisclosure agreement. Miller however pointed out a bug in Safari browser 3.1.
The co-winner of last years hacking content, Macaulay was able to breach into the vista operating system running service pack 1. It took him two days but was finally successful hacking into vista on the last day.
Overall threre were three winner, Charlie who hacked MacBook, Macaulay who breached the Vista, and linux operating system Ubuntu 7.10 installed in one of the system that remained unconquered.
Copyright,
respective author or news agency
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Bad 'Journalism'
By:
Don ,
Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:28:36 GMT |
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It's easy for Nigel Wright to read a headline and not do any actual research or journalism.
1) You didn't right that Miller had spent a week preparing for only this.
2) You did reveal, later on, that he had failed for an entire day to get into the Mac, but you didn't say what happened on the second day that let him break the Mac. In fact, he sent a message to the Mac saying, "come to this site," had the Mac then go to the site, download a file, open the file, and give it permission to run. He didn't so much crack a Mac as he did show that there are idiots who can be fooled.
3) Contrary to your first line, the Mac OS was NOT hacked. Rather, an application, Safari, was hacked. Saying the Mac OS was hacked would be like giving a car a flat tire and saying you had damaged the engine.
Your article is an embarrassment to yourself, the Earth Times, and journalism. Perhaps you could get a job that your skills merit, such as groundskeeper.
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Get it straight
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macattack ,
Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:48:34 GMT |
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Sorry to set the record straight but It was really a remote and very serious breach.
The only interaction needed was to get someone to navigate to a malicious web site using safari he had spent a week (not 2 minutes) creating prior to the contest.
This could easily have been a link sent in an email or a result from a google search.
Once the malicious web site had done its work, Charlie was able to do whatever he wanted with OSX remotely. Thats not just Safari being breached... its the OS too.
I love and have used Macs since 1984. Stop sticking your head in the sand and hope the fix gets to us before the hack is leaked to the outside world.
Charlie also said that he could have just as easily hacked Vista or Linux using the same exploit so they should not get too complacent either!
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misleading report
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Moof ,
Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:15:14 GMT |
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You say the Miller cracked the Macbook Air in "just about less than two minutes", however you say that Macaulay took two days to crack the Vista machine. You fail to mention that Miller had been working on it for about 3 weeks prior (see http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/711), that it was done on the second day (1 day and two minutes, by your counting), and that Macaulay got his exploit to work on the third day (hence two days). Your rather sensationalist approach makes it sound like Miller just sat down seeing the machine for the first time, and in two minutes wrote and executed an exploit. This is patently false, and shoddy reporting.
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It was 100% an inside job though...
By:
OS11 ,
Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:56:23 GMT |
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People need to keep in mind, it was only able to "hack it" once he had full physical and password access. Kinda like if you gave keys to a thief, then 2 minutes later they were able to "break in".
Bottomline, Macs can't be hacked without inside help, so it's not a serious breach.
The whole event is a farce.
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