Hackers taking part in a friendly competition aimed at highlighting OS and software vulnerabilities did some real damage to a variety of computer-based web browsers — including Safari, which took all of 10 seconds to bust on a MacBook — but where smartphones are concerned, the hackers were stumped. The competition took place at CanSecWest in Vancouver, Canada and big cash prizes were up for grabs. In fact, each successful execution of an attack on a smartphone was worth a cool $10,000. Apparently the closest someone came however, was a BlackBerry Bold exploit attempt that failed despite reportedly having worked on a Storm in the past. There was also an exploit performed on Safari for Mac that is thought to work on the iPhone as well but the iPhone hack was not attempted; the rules of the contest stated that each exploit could be used only once. In the end, not a single contestant was able to crack a smartphone during the two-day hackathon. Good news though, hackers, as CanSecWest and ZDI have already stated that smartphones will be included once again in next year’s competition. That gives you about 12 months to hone those skills and put those tiny mobile processors to work.
[Via heise online]
