Hacker Pwn2Own organizer: Windows 7 is safer than Snow Leopard

Computer World ^ | 17 Feb 2010 | Preston Gralla

[for-q-clinton]

Here's one more piece of evidence that the Mac isn't the secure, locked-down system that its proponents claim: The organizer of the Pwn2Own hacking contest says that Windows 7 is more secure than Snow Leopard, and that Safari will be the first browser to fall victim in the upcoming hacking contest.

Contest organizer Aaron Portnoy, who is the security research team lead with 3Com TippingPoint, the sponsor of Pwn2Own, told Computerworld's Gregg Keizer that:

"Safari will be the first to go. [Safari will] be on Snow Leopard, which isn't on the same level as Windows 7."

Last year at the contest, it took only five seconds for a security researcher to hijack a Mac by hacking in through Safari. The year previous, it took less than two minutes to hack in to a Macbook Air --- and once again, Safari proved to be the security hole.

...

Who is right? One way to tell will be at the upcoming Pwn2Own contest --- I'll have details when it happens.

[Richard Kimball]

It’s pwn2own, not pawn2own.

[for-q-clinton]

Thank you for the geek speak correction.

Let me restate that...OS X has been the easiest and quickest hacked at the past 3 pwn2own contests.

[LoneStarGI]

My understanding is that if you already have Vista and want to upgrade to Windows 7, it should be a ‘seemless’ transition. Windows 7 should automatically adopt all your folders and settings during setup. It’s only if you’re going from like XP to Windows 7 where you will have to manually reset all your settings and reload your software after install.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Ping.

[BenKenobi]

If you’ve got money to burn, buy a mac. Or you can spend 1/3rd the amount and get yourself a nice pc.

[Gondring]

I would recommend a clean install of W7, though I admit having very little experience with Vista. I second the comments of those who have been pleasantly surprised with W7.

[Swordmaker]

I was saying everyone knew OS X would be the first to fall as the exploits have been known for a while yet Apple wasn’t able to identify and fix them. . . Plus it was even said that it would be the easiest to hack BEFORE the contest took place.

Everyone DID NOT KNOW that OSX would be the first to fall... that was a claim by a few... and it was being claimed because Charlie Miller ALREADY had his hack prepared! He had it way before the contest and DID NOT REPORT IT. This is considered unethical in the computer security community. He found the vulnerability months before the contest and sat on it... waiting for the contest, knowing it was obscure and would win the contest for him... and bragged about it before the contest.

[Swordmaker]

Thank you for your ping to this thread... but it is OLD NEWS... posted by for-q-clinton to merely stir the pot. It was posted when it was NEW NEWS back in February. I am not sure it is worth of a Mac ping list post. What do you think?

[LeGrande]

Please please please point me to a website that will hijack my win7 box. Since windows 7 has a larger market share than all OSX flavors combined it will be easier to find the windows7 site, so I’ll let you go first.

I didn't claim that I could. You are the reprobate that made the claim.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Point - but for completeness, I thought you'd want the heads up so you could make that decision.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

BTW - have you considered assembling links to all the rebuttals of the FUD posts, and linking them to the famous monochrome image with the embedded caption, not this [stuff] again?