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Thread: Hacked!

  1. #1
    Formerly Michael Fanelli, mwfanelli, mfa mwfanelli2's Avatar
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    Hacked!

    I found this amusing. At CanSecWest, a guy won $10,000 for hacking a MacBook Air in two minutes! The details are under non-disclosure but it does point out one major truth: Apple has come of age. Apple has increased it's market share so much that it's now a viable target. Looks as if Mac folks will have to start worrying about security real soon now.

    http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/p...-minutes-flat/
    “Men never do evil so cheerfully and completely as when they do so from religious conviction.” — Blaise Pascal

  2. #2
    has-been... another view's Avatar
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    Re: Hacked!

    I've heard that Mac people (not sure whether die-hard users or Apple's own people) have been able to write viruses and cause all kinds of fun problems that Windows users are familiar with - for quite a while, nothing new. Since Mac users are still a small minority, many people (myself included) don't lose a whole lot of sleep over it.

  3. #3
    Formerly Michael Fanelli, mwfanelli, mfa mwfanelli2's Avatar
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    Re: Hacked!

    I should have mentioned that this is a three manufacturer hacking contest. Apple was hit hard and fast and was hacked in a couple of minutes. Vista and Ubuntu are still unhacked after three days.
    “Men never do evil so cheerfully and completely as when they do so from religious conviction.” — Blaise Pascal

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    Captain of the Ship Photo-John's Avatar
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    Re: Hacked!

    Quote Originally Posted by mwfanelli2
    I should have mentioned that this is a three manufacturer hacking contest. Apple was hit hard and fast and was hacked in a couple of minutes. Vista and Ubuntu are still unhacked after three days.
    I believe the winner won the computer they hacked. So it's possible he could have hacked any of them but wanted the Mac Book. I think the winner is also the guy who hacked the iPhone first.
    Photo-John

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  5. #5
    Formerly Michael Fanelli, mwfanelli, mfa mwfanelli2's Avatar
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    Re: Hacked!

    Quote Originally Posted by Photo-John
    I believe the winner won the computer they hacked. So it's possible he could have hacked any of them but wanted the Mac Book. I think the winner is also the guy who hacked the iPhone first.
    No, all the machines were actively being attacked, including by the guy who killed the Mac. Only the Apple fell. The hacking was restricted to using the computers "as is" with no third party apps installed. So it is a major Apple security bug.

    After no progress on hacking the other two, today's news is that the test was widened on the last day to allow third party apps of any sort to be installed on the remaining computers. A bug in Adobe Flash was exploited to hack into Vista. Ubuntu remained unhacked at the end of the show.
    “Men never do evil so cheerfully and completely as when they do so from religious conviction.” — Blaise Pascal

  6. #6
    has-been... another view's Avatar
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    Re: Hacked!

    OK, dumb question - what exactly is "hacked" in this sense? I've heard the term used when someone's website has been taken over or data has been stolen by someone breaking into a network, but this sounds like a different deal because those typically don't involve something tangible like the computer itself.

    The computer is right in front of them to turn on and play with or steal files. I don't think there's anything too exciting on my computer, and the biggest problem for me (by a long shot) would be if the thing itself got stolen. What am I missing? I'm sure this is a very dumb question but that never stopped me before.

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    Senior Member Medley's Avatar
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    Re: Hacked!

    The thing is, there is generally a large difference between 'can' and 'will'. Hackers want to infect as many systems as possible in the shortest amount of time, before a patch can be created. Bad news for non-Mac users- that's still you.

    Add to that the fact that the Macbook Air is the latest Mac hardware on the market. It's only been available for a little over two months. To my way of thinking, that means it's still in beta testing. How hard was it to crash a Vista machine two months into production?

    - Joe U.
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  8. #8
    Formerly Michael Fanelli, mwfanelli, mfa mwfanelli2's Avatar
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    Re: Hacked!

    Quote Originally Posted by Medley
    The thing is, there is generally a large difference between 'can' and 'will'. Hackers want to infect as many systems as possible in the shortest amount of time, before a patch can be created. Bad news for non-Mac users- that's still you.

    Add to that the fact that the Macbook Air is the latest Mac hardware on the market. It's only been available for a little over two months. To my way of thinking, that means it's still in beta testing. How hard was it to crash a Vista machine two months into production?

    - Joe U.
    As far as I know, MacBook Air uses Leopard. The timing of the Leopard release was almost the same as the Vista release so its been out for quite a while. Yep, Leopard was buggy but the major faults were allegedly fixed in the last massive patch.

    If you read the article, the exploit used a bug in Safari, a product supplied just like IE7 is supplied with Vista. IE7 and Vista could not be hacked, Firefox and Ubuntu could not be hacked. Leopard and Safari collapsed in two minutes. That says something. The Vista hack on the last day had to install a different browser (allegedly Firefox 2) to make the Adobe Flash exploit work. IE7 did not allow it as IE7 runs at less than even user priviliges.

    The key here is not that MacOS is bad. But security has never been a big deal for Apple, obscurity was protection enough. Now, with its bigger audience, its getting noticed and attacked. IMHO, there will be many carefree Mac users who will be hit very hard in the future.

    By the way, Vista and Ubuntu are designed to run on anything and they have to be prepared to run perfectly on everything from a modified toaster to a highly-controlled OEM machine. Apple controls their expensive hardware, they know in advance what MacOS will be running on. Apple should not be making this many mistakes and blunders. MacOS could never survive in the wild the way MS and Linux do every day.
    “Men never do evil so cheerfully and completely as when they do so from religious conviction.” — Blaise Pascal

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