iPhone, Safari, IE8, Firefox all fall on day one of Pwn2Own

[FarCenter]

By Gregg Keizer - March 24, 2010 08:42 PM ET

Computerworld - Hackers took down Apple's iPhone and Safari browser, Microsoft's Internet Explore 8 (IE8) and Mozilla's Firefox within minutes at today's Pwn2Own contest, as expected.

The two-man team of Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann exploited the iPhone in under five minutes, said a spokeswoman for 3Com TippingPoint, the security company that sponsored the contest. The pair also walked away with $15,000 in cash, a record prize for the challenge, which is in its fourth year.

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Charlie Miller, an analyst at Baltimore-based Independent Security Evaluators, brought down Safari on a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard for a three-peat at Pwn2Own.

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When his turn came, Pwn2Own newcomer Peter Vreugdenhil successfully exploited a vulnerability in IE8 running on Windows 7 with attack code called "technically impressive" by TippingPoint because it bypassed the operating system's Data Execution Prevention, or DEP, security mechanism, which is designed to stop most attacks.

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Another former winner, a German computer science student known only by his first name, Nils, was awarded $10,000 for hacking Firefox on Windows 7.

Of the browsers set up as targets for the contest, only Google's Chrome remained standing on the first day.

<SNIP>http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9174078/iPhone_Safari_IE8_Firefox_all_fall_on_day_one_of_Pwn2Own?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2010-03-25

[LiberalFighter]

1. DU provides a method for including links to sources that is cleaner.

The help file is labeled "HTML lookup table" located in the Message options when posting.

[frazzled]

2. I've been using Safari all day ... no problems

Of course, I did just step away to clean the bathroom. Did something happen while I was lysoling the toilet?