CONFERENCE On Demand: Cyber AI & Automation Summit - Watch Now
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Vulnerabilities

Facebook Password Reset Flaw Earns Researcher $15,000

A researcher says he has earned $15,000 for informing Facebook of a vulnerability that could have been exploited to reset the password of any user account.

A researcher says he has earned $15,000 for informing Facebook of a vulnerability that could have been exploited to reset the password of any user account.

India-based bug bounty hunter Anand Prakash discovered that he could change user account passwords due to a brute-force vulnerability in beta.facebook.com, the Beta Tier domain which gets major code changes and hotfixes ahead of the production version to allow developers to perform tests and report any issues before they impact production services.

When users forget their password, they can reset it by confirming their account with a 6-digit code received via email or text message. Users can normally only try up to a dozen codes before Facebook’s brute-force protections kick in and attempts to enter the account confirmation code are blocked.

However, Prakash discovered that the protection was not implemented on beta.facebook.com, which could have allowed malicious actors to easily find the 6-digit code by launching a brute force attack.

In a video demonstrating the issue, the expert used Burp Suite, the popular web app security testing toolset, to show how easily the 6-digit codes could have been guessed, allowing an attacker to reset user account passwords.

According to Prakash, the vulnerability was reported to Facebook on February 22 and it was patched by the next day. The expert said the social media giant rewarded his work with $15,000.

Facebook revealed last month that it had paid out a total of $4.3 million to researchers since the launch of its bug bounty program in 2011. Last year, the company awarded nearly $1 million to 210 researchers who submitted a total of 526 valid reports. The highest number of rewards went to India, Egypt, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Related Reading: Facebook, Researcher Quarrel Over Instagram Hack

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Related Reading: Facebook Pays Out $7,500 Bounty for Account Hijacking Flaw

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join us as we delve into the transformative potential of AI, predictive ChatGPT-like tools and automation to detect and defend against cyberattacks.

Register

As cybersecurity breaches and incidents escalate, the cyber insurance ecosystem is undergoing rapid and transformational change.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

Vulnerabilities

A researcher at IOActive discovered that home security systems from SimpliSafe are plagued by a vulnerability that allows tech savvy burglars to remotely disable...

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.