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Mac Crack Contest Killed
John Stith
Staff Writer
2006-03-09
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
One of the big controversies right now in security right now has been the ability to hack a Mac… or the lack thereof. A contest put together by a Mac guru to test that notion launched at the University of Wisconsin-Madison but it was pulled after 38 hours. How did Mac OS X do in those 38 hours.
A little background first. In February, concept codes for Mac worms appeared in a couple of different places. That started the current furor. Then, a few days ago, a Swedish Mac enthusiast levied a challenge for his own Mac. The thing was, it was more an internal type of thing because potential hackers would get an account in the system and work from there. It only took 30 minutes but most critics thought it was bogus because it wasn't a standard, protected Mac used on the Internet. Someone already had the keys. They just had to open the door and walking into the kitchen.
Dave Shroeder set up his own challenge. The problem was he forgot to mention the challenge to the University and when the heard about it, they recommended he pull the plug, which he did. The competition has been pulled down completely. The Inquirer printed his message about ending the test, "Yesterday we discovered the Mac OSX "challenge" was not an activity authorized by the UW-Madison. Once the test came to the attention of our CIO, she ended it. The site, test.doit.wisc.edu, will be removed from the network tonight. Our primary concern is for security and network access to UW services. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused to the community."
The test was actually up for about 38 hours. During that time, Mac held off the onslaught. Four thousand login attempts were tried, including two DoS attacks and Mighty Mac Mini held the line.
This shows a properly maintained and protected machine has solid defenses. It doesn't mean the machine is impregnable. While 38 hours is a decent amount of time, it would be interesting to see what a truly sustained assault would be able to do. One can bet though, with the high profile Mac is receiving, it will be cracked wide open soon.
Tag: Mac
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About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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