White Hat Hackers Break into macOS Sierra Using Safari Exploit at Security Conference
Toggle Dark Mode
A team of hackers has found an exploit in the macOS Sierra version of Safari that gave them root access to the operating system, according to a new report.
The exploit was carried out by hacker JH, along with a team from Pangu. The group of white-hat hackers successfully claimed a $100 thousand prize at this year’s PWNFEST, a festival in which hackers compete to find bugs and exploits in software for prize money. The hackers then share their exploits with software companies, allowing tech developers to fix dangerous flaws and increase the security of their platforms, according to their website.
Pangu and JH succeeded in exploiting Apple Safari on macOS Sierra and got root privilege, and $100,000 in #PwnFest2016. #POC2016.
— vangelis (@vangelis_at_POC) November 11, 2016
The news was first broken by a Tweet sent out by vangelis, an organizer at the hacking and security conference. All of the systems hacked at the conference were running the latest versions of their respective operating systems. There’s currently no word on how the exploit works, but more information is likely to be released once companies are able to patch the security flaws — which will help prevent malicious hackers from taking advantage of the exploits, 9to5Mac reported.
JH and the team from Pangu managed to win both the basic prize of $80 thousand, as well as the bonus prize of $20 thousand for running the exploit in less than 20 seconds. Pangu is infamous for being the Chinese hacking team behind several of the jailbreaks for recent versions of iOS.
Apple’s macOS Sierra isn’t the only operating system that took a hit at the conference. Hackers were also able to exploit Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, WinBeta reported. And Google’s Pixel phone was reportedly hacked in less than 60 seconds, according to The Hacker News.
Notably, there is also a $180 thousand prize at the conference for anyone who is able to find an exploit in Apple’s flagship iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 10. Currently, no one seems to have claimed that prize.
