Pwn2Own contest winner: Macs are safer than Windows

    

Charlie Miller, the security expert who won both this and last year’s CanSecWest Pwn2Own security contests by exploiting Macs running Safari, repeated in an interview that he’d recommend Macs to typical users as a safer alternative to Windows PCs.

Following both Pwn2Own contests, numerous sensationalist headlines played up the idea that a Mac had been “cracked in seconds,” conspicuously neglecting to mention what Miller called “the many days doing research and writing the exploit before the day of the competition,” enabling him to discover the bugs and develop a way to successfully exploit them on the first try at the event.

IE8 gains market share at Microsoft’s own expense

                  

New browser cuts into IE7’s market share, while Firefox, Safari and Chrome boost theirs

 

Gains made by Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) since its launch last Thursday have come at the expense of the older IE7, according to data from Irish metrics firm StatCounter.

And while IE7’s market share has fallen by 2.6 percentage points since last Wednesday, the day before Microsoft Corp. released IE8, most rival browsers showed significant gains, giving credence to the idea that Microsoft’s newest venture has not pushed users of its competitors to switch.

Fourth Leopard 10.5.7 test build given to developers

             

Development seems to be coming to a close for Apple’s upcoming OS X Leopard 10.5.7 build, folks. World of Apple is reporting a new test build has been released to the developers of OS X software, which is reporting only one current issue. The build notes can be found below, and as you can see, the only issue at the moment is that the Safari 4 beta only installs on the current Leopard build, 10.5.6.

Chrome beats the hackers in annual browser bash

The Pwn2Own competition, which is held every year to challenge hackers and security experts to find vulnerabilities in web browsers and mobile devices, has taken its usual share of victims with one surprise survivor during its first day.

Targeted browsers included Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Google’s Chrome, running on a Sony Vaio notebook running Windows 7 as well as Safari and Firefox on a Macbook running OS X.

MacBook hacked in seconds, again

Many people may remember Charlie Miller from last year’s event where he successfully hacked a MacBook and was able to take control over it within seconds, walking away with the MacBook and the grand prize.

Charlie Miller once again successfully hacked the fully patched MacBook by exploiting a security vulnerability in Safari, Apple’s web browser. The hack was accomplished by the team clicking on a link that took control of the machine within seconds. Charlie Miller walked away with the MacBook and the $10,000 top prize after successfully hacking the MacBook the fastest.

TippintPoint Zero Day Initiative has acquired exclusive rights to the vulnerability, and will work with Apple to patch the flaw. Details about the attack will not be disclosed until the patch is ready.

Charlie Miller wasn’t the only successful hacker, but a security researcher nicknamed “Nils” was able to hack into a Sony Vaio laptop running an updated Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8. “Nils” walked away with the cash prize and got to keep the hardware after successfully hacking it. “Nils” was also successfully able to hack into Apple’s Safari browser being the second hacker of the day to exploit it.

by Andrew Lyle