Re: MySpace e-mail importer rasies security concerns

[MadHat Unspecific <madhat () unspecific com>]

Kristian Hermansen wrote:
> On 7/29/07, "HACK THE GOV" <hackthegov () googlemail com> wrote:
> > "we've recently noticed the functionality of myspace in respect of the
> > e-mail importer raises privacy and security concerns.
>
> Yea, it would be a dumb idea to use that feature.  Although, if you
> really really really want to use it, it would be wise to temporarily
> change your password, use the feature, and then set it back to
> minimize the abuse potential.  Still a bad idea.
>
> LinkedIn also has this functionality...
> https://www.linkedin.com/secure/uploadContacts?displayWebMail=&trk=inv_webmail

Facebook, Spock and several other sites are implementing this type of
'feature'.  It is interesting to see how people are willing to give
someone their password.  I sent a message to the local DC214 group about
this not too long ago[1].  One member responded with a story of
financial website that used a similar method to verify your bank account
(optional) by giving the login credentials of your bank account on the
bank's website.


[1] the original email I sent, nothing too interesting:

I recently started looking at Facebook and Spock as online services.  I
was curious what they offered and how they were different from other
services.

One of the things I found interesting about both is that both offered,
or forced (if you want to use their service), to log into other online
services for you and scrape the data from that other services.  Both
offer some way of importing address book from mail applications or
address books.  On each you were asked to give the login and pass for
services such as yahoo, gmail, myspace, hotmail, etc... and then the
service would log in and get a copy of your address book or other
details you had entered and replicate the data or offer to "spam" your
contacts with invites to the new service.  You have no way to know if
these credentials are being stored or if they are using ssl or what the
network landscape is like between the 2 services.  Personally I expect
those accounts to be compromised and use throwaway passwords on them, so
I can play with each of these services. It's not like I saw anything
revolutionary in any of them, but I found the idea of trusting them to
have the credentials to so many other online services interesting and
why people would be willing to give them up (other than stupidity and
'sheeple-ness').


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MadHat (at) Unspecific.com, C²ISSP
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