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    Unpatched Macs Snatched from Hackers’ Clasp

    By
    Lisa Vaas
    -
    April 20, 2007
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      Two shiny, new and delightfully unpatched Mac systems were sitting ducks at the CanSecWest security conference on April 19, while top-notch hackers were clustered in hotel rooms, frantically trying to remotely pwn the systems before the show organizers had a chance to apply 25 patches Apple released on the same day.

      Apple released the security patches for Mac OS X and then made a beeline to the phone to inform the organizers of CanSecWest, where, as Apple was well aware, a “pwn-2-own” contest was ongoing.

      To the dismay of conference hackers, CanSecWest organizers beat them to the punch, patching the systems before they were pwned.

      (Pwn is a slang term; Wikipedia defines it thus: “…’to compromise’ or ‘to control’, specifically another computer [server or PC], web site, gateway device, or application; it is synonymous with one of the definitions of hacking. An outside party who has ‘owned’ or ‘pwned’ a system has obtained unauthorized administrative control of the system.” Wikipedia notes that the term is used primarily in the gaming culture, where it is sometimes used for taunting enemies and rubbing in victories; Wikipedia fails to note, however, that the same gleeful needling is employed in hacking circles.)

      Winners of the pwn-2-own contest take home either a 2.3Ghz 15″ Macbook Pro, for which they have to gain remote access as a default user, or a 2.3Ghz 17″ Macbook Pro if they remotely gain administrative rights and dig out a file at root level. As HD Moore and other famed hackers noted, however, the value of the systems isn’t near what a hacker could get by selling a Mac zero-day vulnerability. Therefore, a representative from TippingPoint announced on Thursday that the jackpot had been sweetened by a cash award of $10,000.

      Lisa Vaas
      Lisa Vaas is News Editor/Operations for eWEEK.com and also serves as editor of the Database topic center. Since 1995, she has also been a Webcast news show anchorperson and a reporter covering the IT industry. She has focused on customer relationship management technology, IT salaries and careers, effects of the H1-B visa on the technology workforce, wireless technology, security, and, most recently, databases and the technologies that touch upon them. Her articles have appeared in eWEEK's print edition, on eWEEK.com, and in the startup IT magazine PC Connection. Prior to becoming a journalist, Vaas experienced an array of eye-opening careers, including driving a cab in Boston, photographing cranky babies in shopping malls, selling cameras, typography and computer training. She stopped a hair short of finishing an M.A. in English at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She earned a B.S. in Communications from Emerson College. She runs two open-mic reading series in Boston and currently keeps bees in her home in Mashpee, Mass.

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