Hack-my-Mac challenge leaves system shipshape

[scokim]

http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=30724

A university systems engineer who said a Swedish hack-my-Mac contest was too easy closed down his own challenge and said that even after 4,000 log-in attempts and two denial-of-service attacks, his Mac mini remained untouched.

Dave Schroeder, a senior systems engineer at the University of Wisconsin, launched his contest by setting up a fully-patched Mac mini hosting a web page, and challenging attackers to have at it.

Schroeder said that the Swedish attack contest -- in which an attacker claimed he had cracked the Mac in under 30 minutes -- was deceptive. "This machine was not hacked from the outside just by being on the Internet," Schroeder wrote on his web site. "It was hacked from within, by someone who was allowed to have a local account on the box. That is a huge distinction.

 

[mkrishnan]

This is nice, but such a test ought to run for more than 38 hours....

But it was very nice of this gentleman to make this contribution.

 

[MisterMe]

This is old news, albeit incomplete. The test was not stopped voluntarily. The University of Wisconsin took exception to the non-University network traffic generated by crack attempts on the test computer. However, Schroeder's computer was up and unbreached for a bit longer than 30 minutes.

 

[Timepass]

This is old news, albeit incomplete. The test was not stopped voluntarily. The University of Wisconsin took exception to the non-University network traffic generated by crack attempts on the test computer. However, Schroeder's computer was up and unbreached for a bit longer than 30 minutes.

so was the other mac.
it was a around 6 hours for it to be broken into. Just took the guy who did it less then 30 mins worth of work.