Research shows tweeting through text message is a surefire way to get your account hijacked [updated]
Research shows tweeting through text message is a surefire way to get your account hijacked [updated]
You don’t need an Internet-connected smartphone to send out a tweet. In fact, very few people know that tweets can be sent out through a text message. However, users who do tweet from their cellphones via SMS could have their accounts easily hacked. An exploit detailed by researcher Jonathan Rudenberg reveals “Twitter users with SMS enabled are vulnerable to an attack that allows anyone to post to their account” by spoofing the phone number associated with the account. Rudenberg reports that unless a PIN number is set up (not available in the U.S.) to authorize tweets, users are vulnerable. Although the exploit was reported to Twitter’s security team in August, Rudenberg says the social network still hasn’t closed the hole, despite asking him to refrain from publishing his finding. Rudenberg also said in his blog post that he found similar SMS-related exploits with Facebook (FB) and Venmo that have since been patched. More →
