Usually, I'm not a fan of "hacking challenges" for a few reasons: they don't prove anything about security, they're usually not fair, and whetever prize being offered is usually not worth the time investment. However, there is one place where hacking challenges matter: public opinion. In other words, for good or for ill, people tend to take notice when somebody wins (or loses) a hacking challenge. So when the rm-my-mac challenge demonstated that a fully patched OS X installation can be rooted in about 30 minutes using "one of dozens" of undisclosed (and unpatched) vulnerabilities, I'm thinking that might catch an eye or two. Or then again, maybe not; here is some reaction from the Mac population:
- "Still, it's 20 minutes longer than it took me to own XP" -Good Morning Silicon Valley
- I have heard from a reliable source that Microsoft setup this competition using a crippled version of MacOSX by installing Windows backdoors at certain memory locations. -Raymond Cubicle in the ZDnet Comments
- Both CNET and ZDNet are paid by Microsoft (e.g. for advertising, etc...) Every article they post about Apple are so biased. Check their past articles and decide for yourself. -John Doe3 in the ZDnet Comments
Check the ZDNet comments for more fun "it's a Microsoft setup" comments.
Posted by Ed at March 7, 2006 08:19 AM