MacBook Hacked in Seconds in Pwn2Own Contest

The CanSecWest Pwn2Own hacking contest had barely begun before an Apple MacBook running the Safari Web browser was compromised. The successful security attack was carried out by Charlie Miller -- the same contestant that hacked into a MacBook last year.

According to ZDNet, Mr. Miller was able to breach the Mac's security with a remote attack that only required the MacBook user to click a specific link in the Safari Web browser. "It took couple of seconds," Mr. Miller said. Mr. Miller's exploit last year took advantage of a security flaw in the Safari Web browser, too.

Another hacker going by the name "Nils" also executed a successful exploit against Safari, and also managed to hack through Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 as well as the Firefox Web browser running on a Sony Vaio with Windows 7.

While the hackers did win prizes for their successful exploits, they don't get to share their code with the public. The contest rules give ownership of the hacks to TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative who will provide information to Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla to help patch the security flaws.