Apple finally fixes $10k fault

By Dave Nixon

Apple has released a security patch for its Safari web browser, fixing the flaw that earned one security researcher $10,000 at the CanSecWest security conference.

The flaw was exploited by Independent Security Evaluators Researcher Charlie Miller to gain access to a MacBook Air computer three weeks ago. It lies in the WebKit open-source HTML rendering engine used by Safari and several other Mac OS X programs.

The bug lay in the way WebKit would process certain specifically crafted JavaScript commands. In order to utilize the flaw, Miller had to first make the contest organisers visit a special website that contained his malevolent JavaScript code.

There was one additional winner in the CanSecWest PWN 2 OWN contest, which invited hackers to try to break into Windows, Mac and Linux computers. Shane Macaulay, a researcher with the Security Objectives consultancy, hacked into a Vista machine using an Adobe Flash Player bug, which was patched last week.

WebKit is also part of Apple’s Dashboard and Mail software. An Apple spokesman could not say whether users of those products were also at danger from this attack.

In an email interview, Miller said anything that used an older version of WebKit would be susceptible. This may include Linux browsers and mobile-phone browsers, he said.

A second WebKit flaw, patched Wednesday, could bring about a cross-site scripting attack, in which an attacker can do things such as steal the login credentials or log the keystrokes of a victim.

Both the Windows and Mac OS X versions of Safari are vulnerable to these WebKit flaws, Apple said in its security advisory.

The Safari 3.1.1 update also includes fixes for a pair of Safari-for-Windows vulnerabilities that could perhaps be exploited by attackers to run unauthorised software on a victim’s computer and to make a fake phishing Web page appear to have a legitimate web address.