03.20.09

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Has GNU/Linux Won Pwn2Own Again?

Posted in Apple, DRM, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Security, Ubuntu, Windows at 9:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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Summary: GNU/Linux is a no-show, but it was last year’s winner

A LOT of people may not remember this, but Apple’s Mac OS X was the first to fall last year due to a flaw in Safari (proprietary) and Windows Vista was second. Ubuntu GNU/Linux, which was there for people to crack, stayed untouched until the end and thus won. It’s a similar story this year, but having already emerged victorious, Mr. GNU/Linux did not bother attending to defend its title. This is of course a mostly tongue-in-cheek statement, but nonetheless, here is the coverage from Heise:

Safari was the first to fall this week at the Pwn2Own 2009 security competition held at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, Canada. The competition, sponsored by TippingPoint Technologies, awards a prize for each vulnerability found on various mobile phone platforms and internet browsers. Participants were invited to attack Internet Explorer 8, Firefox and Google Chrome on Windows 7 and Safari and Firefox on Mac OS X, each of which was fully patched.

Heise has another interesting story about Windows Trojans in ATMs

Windows Trojan on Diebold ATMs

Vanja Svacjer, a virus expert for Sophos, has reported his latest find in a blog entry: a Trojan that spies on PINs. The difference is that this example specialises in cash dispensers made by Diebold, which run Windows.

It is utterly foolish to run ATMs on Windows for reasons that we listed before using plenty of evidence.

As a side note, we still try to determine or at least wait for a response from Apple regarding its new headphones. Is the following report truthful? It is being actively challenged.

“Latest iPod Suggests that Apple Still Loves DMCA-Assisted Lock-in

Back in January, we noted that despite Steve Jobs’s posturing on the music DRM front, Apple remains a big supporter and user of DRM and DRM-like schemes throughout their product lines. Over at the EFF blog, Fred von Lohmann suggests another potential example. The new iPod Shuffle has no buttons; the controls are on the included headphones.

Until Apple sheds some light it will remain an area that is hard to comment on. █

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