Google Chrome and Android OS Come Strong at Pwn2Own Hacking Contest

Google Chrome came out strong at this year’s Pwn2Own hacking contest, as well as the software stack Android OS for mobile devices, which withstood hack attacks while Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and Apple iPhone 4 fell in the Web browsers category, and  Apple’s iPhone 4 and RIM’s BlackBerry Torch 9800 faltered in the smartphones category.

Held annually, Pwn2Own is a computer hacking contest at the annual CanSecWest security conference, where security experts and hackers try to hack their way into certain devices.



Prior to the competition, Apple and Google were able to release updates on their respective Web browsers; however, despite the last minute update, Safari fell first, and closely followed by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, which did not receive any sort of update before the contest.


Attempts to exploit Google’s Chrome install on a Cr-48 Chrome OS notebook did not push through.



TippingPoint, the contest sponsor, produces a report to an applicable vendor, providing detailed information on the vulnerability and exploitation, which revealed that in the smartphone category iPhone 4 and BlackBerry Torch 9800 faltered in the hands of hackers while Android and Windows Phone 7 remained strong.