Mar 27 2008

MacBook Air hacked in security contest

A team of security researchers has won $10,000 for hacking a MacBook Air in two minutes using an undisclosed Safari vulnerability.

IDG News Service is camped out at CanSecWest in lovely Vancouver, Canada, and has chronicled the exploits (gotta love security puns) of Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel of Independent Security Evaluators during the Pwn to Own contest sponsored by TippingPoint. The team was able to gain control of a MacBook Air on the second day of the hacking competition, which pitted the Air against Windows Vista and Ubuntu machines.

Charlie Miller pwns a MacBook Air at CanSecWest.

(Credit: TippingPoint)

No one was able to execute code on any of the systems on Wednesday, the first day of the contest, when hacks were limited to over-the-network techniques on the operating systems themselves. But on the second day, the rules changed to allow attacks delivered by tricking someone to visit a maliciously crafted Web site, or open an e-mail. Hackers were also allowed to target "default installed client-side applications," such as browsers.

The team had attack code already set up on a Web site, and was able to gain access to the MacBook Air and retrieve a file after judges were "tricked" into visiting the site. According to the TippingPoint DVLabs blog, a newly discovered vulnerability in Safari was used to gain control of the Air.

The contest rules stipulated that winners immediately sign a nondisclosure agreement relating to their technique, so that the vulnerability could be disclosed to the vendor, and TippingPoint said Apple has been informed of the vulnerability.

Last year's contest was won by exploiting a QuickTime vulnerability, which was patched by Apple in less than two weeks. As of the time I posted this, no one had gained control of the Vista or Ubuntu machines, but I'll update later as the results come in over the rest of the afternoon.

UPDATED 3/29 11:45am PT - The Vista laptop fell on the last day of the conference. Check out this story for more details.

Posted in: Laptops, Security
Tags: Apple, MacBook Air, pwned, CanSecWest, Safari
 

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) 14 comments (Page 1 of 1)
by scythie March 27, 2008 5:09 PM PDT
wow and Apple prides itself of being secure?! lol
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by crash110513 March 30, 2008 10:49 AM PDT
of course it did it was the only one anyone wanted
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by bigmc6000 March 31, 2008 5:53 AM PDT
I have an exceptionally hard time believing that no one could hack the Vista machine once the rules changed on day 2. I mean, how many times have we seen warnings about authenticating e-mail you receive and not going to malicious web sites. Honestly, they couldn't hack IE by asking someone to go to a website specifically designed to give the hacker access? Riiiggghhhtttt - I'm thinking they all spent their time on the MBA since "Windows laptop hacked" wouldn't even make it in the also-ran section of the CNet page...
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by acheron5 March 31, 2008 6:07 AM PDT
I followed this and it seemed that the team that hacked the Airbook had come prepared ahead of time to take advantage of the Safari security hole. Other efforts seem to have been started from scratch. What is interesting is that none of the operating systems themselves were hacked. These exploits were the result of deficiencies in applications that ran on the operating systems, namely Safari on OS X and Flash (I think) that resulted in the Vista hack. And also reassuring, the Safari hack was very similar to a phishing scam requiring the user to actively click on certain links. In many ways Apple has really made its products a target by proclaiming how inherently secure they are. That isn't necessarily wrong, but it does shine a spotlight on these types of breaches that distorts their true nature. For consumers, this distortion isn't a bad thing other than making some engage in a debate that is much ado about nothing, namely which OS is more secure. It's a good thing in the end because it will compel companies to remain vigilent. Even though OS X is extremely secure by any standard and for the vast majority of uses, it doesn't hurt to have Apple take a more articulate stance on the subject of security.
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by lil-yankee March 31, 2008 12:45 PM PDT
Interesting right? But before everybody starts to take on apple and their security slogan lets clear something out. In the article it says that the mac was hacked in 2 minutes, that is not true and it wasn't the operating system itself but an application. Lets get it clear, the contestant went to the show the first day to hack the operating system and they couldn't hack any of the three Linux, OSX or Vista SP1. Then the second time they went they had more flexibility being able to use any application or part of the Operating System to take control of it. Now the important fact: they had one full week to design the code and put up the website and they ran the process in 2 minutes. Now question, why the macbook air? Simple. After finding how to hack safari which is a process in which the would be victim must be very I repeat very innocent to follow links from an unknown email to other sites and press yes and ok ;think of the prize. Why hack windows and get a pc labtop that is inferior in price if they could take on mac and get the more expensive air. The price was which ever computer they hacked plus 10,000 us dollards. So there you have it. Hack the mac air and get the labtop plus the money and walk out with pride and prestige or hack the windows pc and walk out being just another guy with 10,000 more dollards.
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by ooid March 31, 2008 2:08 PM PDT
its absolutely killing me the latest spin is that the reason the air was hacked first was because the hakers would get a superior apple laptop. ok so (first hackable = inferior) and (reward mac laptop = superior) - isn't that something called an oxymoron. are you serious? if vista was hacked first there wouldn't be anybody spewing nonesense about wanting the best prize - it would just be chalked up as another reason vista sucks.
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by AppleSuxLeo March 31, 2008 7:43 PM PDT
Hacked in TWO minutes !!! And when Vista finally was hacked , it was through Flash. None of the native Windows programs let the hackers in. Mac was hacked through a NATIVE Mac program...Safari (AKA Swiss-Cheese) BTW , 400+ holes were identified in Linux , but he didn`t want to spend the time writting the code. Use FlashBlock and stick it to Apple`s false adverts ;)
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by AppleSuxLeo April 5, 2008 3:58 PM PDT
Wow...Mr Turtle Neck has been feeding us a line since day one on security. And to make matters worese , Safari is the biggest POS ever when it comes to security.
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by theman2233 April 6, 2008 5:07 PM PDT
Ha Ha Ha... this has to be the most hilarious computer related contest ever! As Apple continues to gain in market share it will become apparent that Apples are just as hackable as Windows... and in many cases more so! I guess for the seven years MS was working on Vista, they were trying to patch all the holes... and did a pretty good job!
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