Stumbled sword drawn into Darknet looking for the latest word on Kraken and got the sad news that proud OS X has been beheaded at a Vancouver digital security conference.

CanSecWest runs a contest called Pwn2Own which offers prize money for hacking into either a Windows, a Linux or a Mac machine, respectively, each running its latest/greatest operating system which is patched to the max.

Incredulous, I stormed over to TAW, where they told me:

Once the second-day rules went into effect for the Pwn2Own competition, allowing browser or email exploits to be used, it didn't take more than a few minutes for Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff and Mark Daniel from ISE to get their 0day vulnerability to work on the target MacBook Air; they walk away with the laptop and the $10,000 prize.

Safari, which Apple modestly dubs "Apple's powerful Web browser," was the hole in Leopard's armor.

Of course Miller is a Mac user who apart from the money believes his efforts will make the Mac still stronger. Vulnerabilities are, after all, immediately turned over to the Zero Day Initiative and kept under wraps while vendors notified so that they can protect their customers.

Mac was first to fall last year too. I love Macs. Even if they do have more unpatched holes in their armor for longer periods of time than Windows machines. So say Swiss academic researchers.

Sigh ... . (Sheaths sword. Storms off looking for Kraken.)