Vista laptop finally falls in hacking contest

And not even to a Microsoft vulnerability... they relaxed the rules more to allow "standard applications" to be targeted... and someone found an Adobe Flash vulnerability.

http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9906001-37.html?tag=nefd.blgs

 

Indeed , Why ?? Because of Adobe Flash

 

If they didn't had allowed it. I wonder if Vista > Ubuntu

 

I highly doubt that.
You have to remember Ubuntu is on a 6 month cycle & Windows is on a 2-6 year cycle. & Ubuntu is open source, so anyone can correct it.

 

According to the article, the contest ended and no one hacked the Ubuntu laptop... so at best it would've been a tie.

 

People had found a vunerability, they just couldn't be bothered to take advantage of it.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143962-pg,1/article.html

 

The meaning behind the hacking contest is null if they relaxed the rules like that. It proves that they can't hack the OS without the human factor. When the human factor is involved, any OS can be cracked.

 

Agreed. Linux and Mac aren't better then Windows in security, it's just that they aren't main stream and it wouldn't be worth hitting a small number of Mac/Linux users compared to the 90% of all other computers using Windows.

 

They targeted the Mac first because they wanted the Macbook Air over the other laptops. It was exploited through Safari.

The Windows laptop was then exploited through Flash, and no one wanted to work on the Linux machine.

+3 for OS security. Yay. However, this competition pales in comparison to DefCon.

 

Well, thats not necessarily the reason... read this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/security_report_windows_vs_linux/

Linux is superior to Windows (in terms of security) due to its design. And, the only reason Vista got hacked was because of a non-Microsoft application. This contest really isn't a true representation of how secure the operating systems are.

 

Linux must be really secure.

 

I personally wouldn't hack the ubuntu notebook as i could just dual boot it with the mac, or windows for free.

 

You win the notebook + $$$, not just the OS. That would be a really crappy award.

Congrats! You win a copy of Leopard/Vista....yay?

 

LOL...

Congrats! You win a copy of Ubuntu!

 

then you won nothing

 

You saved yourself some bandwidth.

 

The problem lay on a 3rd party program (Adobe) and Windows in by itself was left open for attack. The Mac was compromised by the Safari browser. On Linux the contestants said it there wasn't enough reason to hack it and the prize was rather minimal. It didn't mean they couldn't do it though. Given time all OS can be hacked. So Linux users has a false sense of security right now.

 

I guess you could look at it that way.

 

the contest is not fair, contestants may choose to hack Mac and Vista first because they cost $$, not because they are easier to get hacked.

 

The cost of the OS is insignificant to the contest prize money (not to mention professional hackers probably have a bookcase full of OSes in the first place). They chose to hack the Mac first because they wanted the Macbook Air. They chose not to hack the Linux box because they didn't feel like it.

Edit: Is this the 3rd time I'm saying the same thing?

 

Pretty much.

 

There is an article where the guy who hacked OS X is quoted specifically saying that he chose OS X because it was the easiest one to hack:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/28/Mac-easiest-to-hack-says-winner_1.html

Now, maybe he's lying, I don't know... I can't prove he isn't. But I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary.