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Vista Falls in CanSecWest Security Challenge

by , 5:05 PM EDT, March 31st, 2008

Last week, the MacBook Air was the first to fall in the CanSecWest Hacker Challenge. On Friday, Vista suffered the same fate, but thanks to Adobe's Flash, according to Channel Web.

Vista was running on a Fujitsu U810.

A researcher, Shane Macaulay, won a US$5,000 cash prize when he exploited an unidentified Adobe Flash player vulnerability. Mr. Macaulay was assisted by Derek Callaway, with Security Objectives, and by Alexander Sotirov, an independent researcher.

This was the second successful attack in the contest. A Sony Vaio notebook running Ubuntu Linux was not compromised.

Apple has had its own concerns about Adobe Flash, and the fact that the exploit involved Flash is both good in some ways for Vista itself, which fought off the MacBook Air attack, but not so good for Adobe's efforts to promote Flash.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3143 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:11 pm Subject:

Actually, it was on Friday, once they opened up to 3rd party software.


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Close Name:Guest
Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:29 pm Subject: False Sensationalism

This is all wacky anyway. It isn't like these hackers are coming up with their exploits on the spot. The last time a Mac was hacked at this same Expo, the guy said he was saving the hack for the sole purpose of winning a prize. These guys are working on these hacks for a while. So, it is a bit of false sensationalism to brag about how fast the exploits were accomplished. You can bet the Vista hacker also had this hack up his sleeves for a while. I also think it is a bit fear mongering to brag about a hack where you trick people to go to a particular site for the exploit to work. sure it is possible to do that, but how many people fall for such tactics?


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Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3143 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:38 pm Subject:

Sadly, lots.


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Close Name:Guest
Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:53 pm Subject: Squichie

Funny, you dont even mention the fact that Linux was present, and the fact that it was the only one that remained unhacked. I also find it funny that the article actually lures the mac zealous by stating that vista gets hacked.

I do believe there is a slight bias from hackers nowadays towards mac, but I think that is the mac community's fault, and the closed nature of apple products. Mac has taken a high ground approach to marketing, has clearly censored their forums, and encrypted their devices so they can resist 3rd party apps, or variations on their products.

I think the Mac is a great OS, but the community, philosophy, and the marketing will make me never buy a mac.


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