Facebook Messenger bug allowed researchers to alter dialogue heritage

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Stability researchers identified a bug in Facebook Messenger that would permit an attacker to modify or take away text, shots, backlinks, and other facts from chats in the Messenger Android application and in desktop Facebook chat — opening up some of Messenger’s 900 million users to possible fraud.

The bug could be applied to alter conversations and unfold malware, in accordance to researchers at the protection company Check Level who identified the bug. A user could change the content of her chats in the Android application and on desktop, making it look as if parties in the dialogue had reported things they didn’t basically say. The capability to modify backlinks in Messenger also produced users susceptible to malware distribution — an attacker could swap out a normal link for a destructive just one and encourage the receiver to simply click on it.

Facebook works to prevent malware from spreading in Messenger by blocking users from sending backlinks to acknowledged malware and phishing web sites. The corporation also shares threat intelligence with other protection researchers on Danger Trade, its social media platform for developers. But new malware could still slip by.

Only parties in the dialogue could exploit the bug — so if you belief your Facebook buddies, you most likely were being not at hazard. Because the bug only impacted the Messenger application and in-browser chat on Facebook.com, the reliable discussions would be logged on other variations of Messenger, this sort of as Messenger.com. If someone’s chats were being manipulated using the bug, he or she would still be ready to entry the original text in yet another variation of Messenger.

“By exploiting this vulnerability, cybercriminals could alter a entire chat thread without the need of the victim noticing,” Oded Vanunu, head of solutions vulnerability research at Examine Level, reported in a statement. “What’s worse, the hacker could apply automation tactics to continually outsmart protection measures for very long-term chat alterations. We applaud Facebook for this sort of a rapid response and placing protection first for their users.”

Facebook’s protection staff patched the Messenger bug in Might soon after they were being alerted to the issue by Examine Level. Because the early days of Facebook, the corporation has run a bug bounty software to stimulate protection researchers and whitehat hackers to report complications to the corporation. A Facebook spokesperson advised TechCrunch that the software has “proven very beneficial.”

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Facebook Messenger bug allowed researchers to alter dialogue heritage
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