Safari hack, ‘boringly predictable charade’
p2pnet news view | Security:- A security expert who last year pulled in $10K for hacking a MacBook Air in less than two minutes has done it again.
This time, he won a mere $5,000. On the other hand, though, the exploit only took him 10 seconds or so.
“Charlie Miller, principal security analyst at Independent Security Evaluators, used a MacBook running the latest version of the Mac OS as part of a contest at the CanSecWest security conference called ‘Pwn2Own,’ which is hacker slang for gaining control of a computer,” says CNet News, going on:
“The security hole, which Miller said he discovered last year, allows a remote attacker to gain control of a machine simply by getting the computer user to click on a malicious URL, as Miller demonstrated.
” ‘It’s not easy, but this worked with one click’ from the Safari browser, he said.”
Says Mac Daily News »»»
The bad news is that these contests twist reality in order to generate publicity for their sponsors and provide headlines for the beleaguered to latch onto; headlines that give false impressions to the sufferers and further bind them to their miserable existence. It’s feeding day for the Windows sufferers’ potent combo of Stockholm Syndrome and Cognitive Dissonance.
It’s a boringly predictable annual charade. We wouldn’t even bother posting about this contest if people would simply report the facts and not try to create fantasies that do not exist in the real world. The fact is that using any version of Windows online remains a risky joke. Please see related articles below.
The good news is that this contest has helped identify issues which OS and software vendors, including Apple, can now plug. In the meantime, as always, relax: Mac users surf the ‘Net with impunity.
The contest is sponsored by TippingPoint, “which will share details on the exploit with Apple and develop a patch for it,” says CNet, adding:
“Later in the day, a 25-year-old computer science student at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, won $15,000 for exploits he demonstrated in IE 8, Safari, and Firefox. The student, who declined to give his full name, gets to keep the Sony Vaio he did his exploits on, and Miller gets to keep the MacBook he used.”
CNet News – Safari hole exploited in seconds at security conference, March 18, 2009
Mac Daily News – Safari hack wins Pwn2Own, , March 19, 2009
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