Apple’s Safari Predicted to be Hacked First

According to the organizer of the Pwn2Own hacking challenge, Apple’s Safari will be the first browser to fall to hacking. However, a researcher who won at Pwn2Own the previous two years is not so sure. Aaron Portnoy, the organizer of the contest, said that Safari is on Snow Leopard, which “isn’t on the same level as Windows 7.” But researcher Charlie Miller says Safari is not significantly easier to hack than other browsers.

The Pwn2Own contest has made headlines for hacking Mac OS X, Safari, Microsoft Windows, and Internet Explorer. There are cash prizes and laptops for those who successfully hack the browsers and operating systems. Last year, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox all fell to attack. Google Chrome did not.

There won’t only be operating systems to hack—there is a mobile component to the competition as well. Competitors will have the opportunity to hack an iPhone 3G S, a Blackberry Bold 9700, a Nokia smartphone, and a Motorola that will most likely be running Android. Portnoy said he expects the iPhone to be the easiest to attack. Miller said he does not expect any of the phones to be successfully hacked because there is not common knowledge about attacking phones.

Pwn2Own will be from March 24 to March 26 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The vulnerabilities and bugs discovered are used to help computer security.

Via Computerworld, image via Apple.