The Atlantic

Another Day, Another Facebook Problem

Facebook has identified, and fixed, an exploit that allowed attackers to gain control of user accounts. These failures are so common and so widespread, it’s becoming hard to even notice them.
Source: Ian Bogost / The Atlantic

Updated on September 28 at 5:33 p.m. ET

More bad news: Facebook has announced that a security exploit allowed attackers to gain control of at least 50 million user accounts.

According to the company, the exploit impacted a feature that lets users see what their profile looks like to another user. In this case, the breach doesn’t appear to involve extracting data from servers. Instead, the defect—introduced by a change to the way videos get uploaded—allowed users to gain control of a user’s account directly, without a password. Facebook on the company’s behalf.

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