Mac gets hacked first in contest
Bleh. I knew this was coming when I first read the rules of this contest. You see, there were 3 different notebooks up for grabs, a MacBook Air, a Fujitsu, and a Sony, but each contestant was only allowed to choose one of the three to attempt to break into — the winner gets the computer and a nice lump of cash. It stands to reason that the slickest gadget out of the bunch would have the most likelihood of being targeted heavily.
The winner used a bug in Safari to win, and of course the winner was one of the guys who was responsible for the iPhone unlock, which also exploited Safari.
Elissa:
Well, but the Mac was hacked very quickly as soon as they allowed browser exploits, while the other two survived the rest of the day (after the Mac was no longer up for grabs). Are you sure the coolness of the MacBook excuses that?
April 1, 2008, 10:04 amNeo:
Yes, with the qualification that I never really said it was excused, just to be expected because of the way the contest was organized. The bulk of the time spent uncovering the vulnerability and coding the exploit would have been spent before the actual event, because randomly-assigned 30 minute windows would be given to contestants who requested them (in advance) to actually exploit the systems. It stands to reason, then, that a contestant serious about winning a particular notebook would spend his time focusing on coding an exploit for that machine, and that a contestant with considerable experience on a given platform would choose the one he believed himself most likely to be able to compromise within the allotted time.
April 1, 2008, 10:41 am