Pwn2Own Winner: Linux

[Osiris]

Yesterday, we told you about the Pwn2Own contest where the MacBook Air was taken down in just 2 minutes. The CanSecWest challenge ended on Friday and PCWorld has the results. The Vista laptop wasn't hacked until the last day of the contest and the Linux laptop was never cracked, which made Linux the obvious winner. However, MS bashers shouldn't look so smug.

Under contest rules, Macaulay and Miller aren't allowed to divulge specific details about their bugs until they are patched, but Macaulay said the flaw that he exploited was a cross-platform bug that took advantage of Java to circumvent Vista's security. "The flaw is in something else, but the inherent nature of Java allowed us to get around the protections that Microsoft had in place," he said in an interview shortly after he claimed his prize Friday. "This could affect Linux or Mac OS X.”

[H]ard|OCP - www.hardocp.com
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[KSoD]

Cool. At least it wasnt Mac.

 

[Prototype]

Yeah good thing it was the last day but linux has better security

 

[KSoD]

No not really. Read the last couple of lines. It states right there that the Java flaw that they used to get Vista could be used on OS X or Linux. So Linux does not have better security. Just that they could not share info among each other for what they used to get the system. Linux would have been taken down by the same exact flaw that took down Vista if they could.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Cool. At least it wasnt Mac.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Greg]

eh, this has been posted before I think, but it's interesting:

Why Windows is less secure than Linux

 

[KSoD]

Yeah of course Windows is less secure. It is the most highly attacked system. When Linux becomes as big as Windows then it would be less secure than any other OS out there. That is not fair to just put that out there. Linux is no where near attacked as much as Windows. Nor is OS X.

When you have about 80% of the world's population running Linux i bet that they would not be as secure as they are now.

 

[carnageX]

OSX is beginning to become more popular though, and their vulnerability is increasing along w/ their popularity.

Heh, I told my employer about this last night, and he said he was glad that Mac went out first.

 

[Greg]

Yeah of course Windows is less secure. It is the most highly attacked system. When Linux becomes as big as Windows then it would be less secure than any other OS out there. That is not fair to just put that out there. Linux is no where near attacked as much as Windows. Nor is OS X.

When you have about 80% of the world's population running Linux i bet that they would not be as secure as they are now.

You're right, there's more Windows attacks out there because everyone uses Windows. You're probably also right in saying that Linux attacks will become more common as Linux's gains popularity, but I'm pretty sure that in general Linux is built better than Windows.

 

[KSoD]

As of right now yes. I fully agree. The Windows Kernel right now is so bloated and clogged. But with Windows 7 Linux will be in for a challenge since Microsoft is committed to using the Mini Win Kernel which is new. So it wont be as bloated as it is right now. New Kernel and new code. So it will be better for Windows after windows 7 start to get into work.