If a x-over cable was used (and I believe on the 2nd day it was) than the “test” was a poor example of a security breach.
I say hack it under real world conditions or shut up. Just because I’m an ace at flight simulator doesn’t mean I’m ready to fly for a commercial airliner.

Part of the contest rules required it to be a new, non-public vulnerability. So, no using old vulnerabilities on Windows. The contest did not require that you develop the hack on the spot though.

And how much lead time did they have to prepare to unearth that “non-public vulnerability”?

Peace,
Gene

Part of the contest rules required it to be a new, non-public vulnerability. So, no using old vulnerabilities on Windows. The contest did not require that you develop the hack on the spot though.

But doesn’t Vista have many known vulnerabilities also? Why couldn’t they exploit those as quickly as the Mac?

Because that won’t get you front page headlines

You know that Windows can be exploited. They’ve been there, done that.

Peace,
Gene

But doesn’t Vista have many known vulnerabilities also? Why couldn’t they exploit those as quickly as the Mac?

“Thus the original $20,000 price went unclaimed.”

price,

Prize?

As I understand the article, it was a vulnerability that was already known to him. Since they weren’t able to penetrate any of the systems on the first day, they were then able to direct the operator of the system to certain websites (as I also understand the article, they never had “direct access” (i.e. hands on the device), just access to the systems over a closed network). Since he already knew about the Safari vulnerability, he had a site already setup to exploit it. That’s how he was able to penetrate the system so quickly.