Facebook Bug Could Give Spammers Names, Photos 145
angry tapir writes with this excerpt from an IDG report: "Facebook is scrambling to fix a bug in its website that could be misused by spammers to harvest user names and photographs. It turns out that if someone enters the e-mail address of a Facebook user along with the wrong password, Facebook returns a special 'Please re-enter your password' page, which includes the Facebook photo and full name of the person associated with the address. A spammer with an e-mail list could write a script that enters the e-mail addresses into Facebook and then logs the real names. This could help make a phishing attack more realistic."
Not a Bug (Score:5, Funny)
It's a feature. Say you get amnesia and all you remember is your email address. Now, thanks to Facebook, you have a means of finding out your name, and what you look like!
From TFA (Score:5, Funny)
>>Scraping Facebook for this type of information is prohibited, she added.
Oh, yes. That'll stop em'. Stern warnings always do.
Answer: some 22yo kid on a powertrip (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Not a Bug (Score:5, Funny)
It's a very serious bug. Spammers aren't _supposed_ to be able to scrape that information without paying facebook for it.
Re:From TFA (Score:3, Funny)
Strongly worded public letters deter most bots.
Re:Not a Bug (Score:5, Funny)
It's a feature. Say you get amnesia and all you remember is your email address. Now, thanks to Facebook, you have a means of finding out your name, and what you look like!
Imagine how much simpler the plot for The Bourne Identity would have been.
Re:*Smack Face* (Score:2, Funny)
Seriously? Who is freaking writing these web pages?
Probably an ex-Slashcode developer.
*does not affect deactivated accounts (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This flaw is no longer available (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot: recent history for nerds, stuff that once mattered.
Re:Scrambling, my ass... (Score:2, Funny)
The site should go down for maintenance until they fix the issue, and only then brought back online.
Good idea. I'm all for bringing it down. Think of how much more productive households, college campuses, and the workplace will be for networks not already blocking facebook access. The increase in productivity would cause a spike in the world economy and take us out of the recession :-)
Re:Return vs. Fresh Login (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Need an adult (Score:3, Funny)
</sarcasm>