PWN to OWN 2009 - hackers competition - Safari down in 10 secs!

[editor]

I love this comp where hackers try to exploit machines with the first in winning the machine.

A security researcher has won $5,000 by hacking a Mac in under 10 seconds, exploiting a hole in Safari.

Charlie Miller, a security analyst wtih Independent Security Evaluators, was competing in the annual CanSecWest's PWN2OWN contest - which offers cash prizes for the quickest hacks.

The competition allows contestants to provide a URL hosting their exploit. Though Miller was forbidden from revealing the details of his hack for fear it would be replicated, he did reveal that the URL exploited a hole in a fully patched version of Safari allowing him to take control of a full patched MacBook.

The second machine to fall was a Sony laptop running Windows 7, which was exploited through a vulnerability in the recently released Internet Explorer 8.

The contest is organised by TippingPoint, which is offering $5,000 for each new vulnerability found in a browser and $10,000 for each successful exploit in the major smartphones. Details of the exploits are shared with the affected companies.

Miller also won the competition last year after breaking into a MacBook Air in under two minutes, a feat which bagged him $10,000.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/249768/safari-falls-in-10-seconds-at-hacking-content.html

More: http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2917
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2934

 

[kained&able]

but macs are much safer then windows pc's.


dave

 

[dlx1]

two minutes work for $10,000. Wish I had a computer like brain

 

[editor]

two minutes work for $10,000. Wish I had a computer like brain

Aye. But those skills only come after a pub-missing, girlfriend deterring, fun-avoiding eternity stuck in front of a keyboard.

 

[Sunray]

Took him a lot longer than 2 minutes to do that.

Two minutes to break it, but ages checking the boundaries of all the parameters and then defining some code to exploit it. Clearly had it done before he turned up.

 

[editor]

Took him a lot longer than 2 minutes to do that.

Two minutes to break it, but ages checking the boundaries of all the parameters and then defining some code to exploit it. Clearly had it done before he turned up.

Obviously, but the security exploit was there. Firefox and IE8 lasted a lot longer under the same conditions.

 

[Sunray]

Given the monumental complexity of it all, its a wonder any machine isn't completely wide open.

Perhaps they are and someone has compromised them all. All it takes is to compromise a popular web server like the BBC news site, slip the code in and you've got half the UK's machines owned.

 

[editor]

The Safari browser went down in two minutes!

etween two winning contestants, they were able to compromise Safari (twice), IE8, and Firefox.

Charlie Miller got the luck of the draw, and had the first time slot for the browser competition. His target- Safari on Mac OS X. Before I could even pull my camera out, it was over within 2 minutes- and Charlie (coincidentally also last year's first winner of the day) is now the proud owner of yet another MacBook, and $5,000 from the Zero Day Initiative.

Next up, Nils. Just Nils- you know, like “Prince” or “Madonna”. With a little tweaking, he ran a sleek exploit against IE8, defying Microsoft’s latest built in protection technologies- DEP (Data Execution Prevention) as well as ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) to take home the Sony Vaio and $5,000 from ZDI.

If that wasn’t enough, Nils pulled a Safari exploit out of his hat (perhaps the same one used for the drawing?) and wowed us a second time- quickly taking down Apple’s browser for another cool $5,000. As a reminder, even though a browser may have been exploited once, anyone else is free to use a different zero-day exploit in order to cash in again.

We were ready to call it a day, but Nils signed up for another time slot, and took a shot at Mozilla Firefox. Lo and behold, another zero-day exploit of his was able to crack Firefox. At this point, I had to pull out my calculator, and tally up another $5,000 ($15K total for Nils today!).

http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog...-firefox-taken-down-by-four-zero-day-exploits

 

[Jonti]

Does anyone think these kind of contests have any real-world significance at all?

Heh! Which machine would you try to win?

(the clue's in the name, guys -- Pwn2Own)

 

[bouncer_the_dog]

Aye. But those skills only come after a pub-missing, girlfriend deterring, fun-avoiding eternity stuck in front of a keyboard.

Not necessarily

 

[sim667]

once u've been able to do it once its gonna be the same every time......

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Yeah, the length of time doesn't really matter with this stuff, it's not like they find the exploit right there and then.

 

[kained&able]

did anyone exploit opera? from scaning the stuff it doesn't seem so. Is that beacuse its difficult or just so few poeple use it no one can be arsed?


dave

 

[FridgeMagnet]

This sort of competition is a good indication of sensible progress in the security field, though. Not too long ago I can imagine that a bunch of the companies involved would have sued them under the DMCA or something. At least now they take the sane and rational course of saying "oh right thanks we'll get that patched up then".