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Facebook fixes private photo bug
Reported by Dean Wilson on Thursday, December 8 2011 11:35 pm
Facebook has fixed an embarassing bug that allowed private photos, including those of founder Mark Zuckerberg, to be accessed by anyone using the website.
Facebook has fixed an embarassing bug that allowed private photos, including those of founder Mark Zuckerberg, to be accessed by anyone using the website.
The bug, which was first discovered by users of a bodybuilding forum, allowed people to access a number of recently uploaded photos, even if the user had set them to private or shared them only with a select group of friends.
The glitch worked only if people reported a picture, showing them additional pictures, which should not have been seen, and asking if they wanted to report any of these. This led to a situation where the reporting feature could be abused deliberately to expose private photos.
“This was the result of one of our recent code pushes and was live for a limited period of time,” Facebook said in a statement. “Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed”
The most ironic thing about this bug is that it was used to gain access to 14 pictures of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, who has frequently attempted to dismiss privacy concerns about his social network. Maybe he will push for bigger privacy changes after this latest mishap.
Source: AFP
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