Macbook Air Hacked in Under 2 Minutes
By: Jayesh Mansukhani
| Mar 29, 2008
One of the things that Apple has always prided itself over and promoted in no uncertain terms, has been the so-called 'robust security' offered by its OSX operating system. However this supposition of Apple's took a huge beating on Thursday when a team of researchers from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) managed to hack a MacBook Air in just two minutes using a previously unknown security vulnerability in Apple’s own safari browser.
The people who did the 'hack' were ISE security researchers - Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel – who were participating in the "PWN to OWN" competition at the CanSecWest security conference, in Vancouver, British Columbia.
In this competition there were 3 laptops, with different OS’s offered for being hacked into. These included an Apple Macbook Air running OS X 10.5.2, a Sony Vaio VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10 and a Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1. Anyone who could successfully hack or exploit these machines would win a $10,000 price from famous security company Tipping Point.
The first to go was of course the Macbook, followed by Windows Vista. Ubuntu stood strong despite repeated attempts.
For further details on this hack, check out this post here on Tipping Point.
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Alek @ Jan 09, 2009
Santana @ Jan 08, 2009
Santana @ Jan 07, 2009
Santana @ Jan 07, 2009
Alek @ Jan 07, 2009
Alek @ Jan 06, 2009
Alek @ Jan 06, 2009
Santana @ Jan 06, 2009
Alek @ Jan 06, 2009
Alek @ Jan 05, 2009
Alek @ Jan 05, 2009
Alek @ Jan 03, 2009
Santana @ Jan 03, 2009
Santana @ Jan 02, 2009
Alek @ Jan 02, 2009
Santana @ Jan 02, 2009
Alek @ Jan 01, 2009
Alek @ Dec 31, 2008
Matt @ Apr 19, 2008
snorr @ Apr 14, 2008
ubuntu is altogether another story. you may be interested to know that hackers dual boot windows xp/vista with ubuntu.
they chose windows for hacking and experimenting while they do their normal work with ubuntu.
delvin varghese @ Apr 05, 2008
What was hacked? How serious was the hack?
We don't really care if he managed to get the apple's screensaver to turn on.
bryan @ Apr 05, 2008
David @ Apr 04, 2008
Ryan @ Apr 04, 2008
Drew @ Apr 02, 2008
Emily @ Apr 02, 2008
When Apple makes hackers turn their heads to Mac computers, I expect more flaws to be found in Mac. Apple computers will just be as unsecured as windows in the future.
Ubuntu is a free ware, coping with philosophies of hackers: the digital world should be free! (I'm not a hacker, so please pardon me if this statement is incorrect). And that explains why hackers don't kill Ubuntu but keep developing it.
Q @ Apr 01, 2008
.. but yea the story was carried in all media so guess u can say it was windows?
u people r dumb @ Mar 31, 2008
vaibhav @ Mar 31, 2008
Remy @ Mar 31, 2008
Jon @ Mar 30, 2008
Its lack of effort, not great security.
Ciel @ Mar 30, 2008
Tony @ Mar 30, 2008
mac or aple don't get the same publicity when they are hacked or compromised as their users are true men who don't admit that the shortcomings, just like proud parents of normal kids.
as can be found out by searching on the net you all can come to know that ever since osx macs have had more security lapses than even windows xp let alone vista.......
bye and ponder over it.
imagine the iphone being hacked in so small time as a precursor to your research.
Manish Sood @ Mar 29, 2008
Hujefa Penwala @ Mar 29, 2008
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