The MacBook Air was hacked at the CanSecWest conference within two minutes.
By: Captain Maverick
Published: Mar 28, 2008
Updated: Sep 2, 2010
Charlie Miller, who first hacked Apple's iPhone last year, broke into an Apple MacBook Air laptop in a matter of two minutes during the "PWN 2 OWN" hacking contest at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver.
Miller took home the first of the three laptops offered as prize plus $10,000 in cash.
The MacBook Air was the first laptop to cease resisting a remote attack. The laptop left it security guard down in only two minutes, thus allowing the Windows and Linux laptops to claim superiority.
{slot15}Apparently, Miller's attempts would've been unsuccessful had the organizers not allowed successful contestants to also give specific order to the guys operating the computers put to test. Basically, Miller's strategy was very simple: he asked the operator to visit a certain site that hosted an online exploit.
The Safari browser was defeated shortly after the visit and the laptop was at Miller's mercy. Needless to say, the organizers had Miller sign a non-disclosure agreement, meaning that the exploit will hit the Internet highway only after Apple has been fully informed.
As of Friday afternoon, the Windows and Linux notebook computers had not yet been hacked.
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