Hackers 'score' on YouPorn chat

Hackers scored on porn video sharing site YouPorn, getting access to its chat service and exposing the, uh, private data of its users.

 

The hackers exploited a coding error that allowed them to expose the email addresses and passwords of more than a million users of the sex chat site this week.

 

Such data would expose the users to potential embarrassment but may allow the hackers to gain access to the users' more sensitive accounts such as email, Facebook, and PayPal, UK's The Register reported.

 

"Looking at the data, it seems like a careless programmer accidentally left debug logging on to a publicly accessible URL as early as November 2007, and it has been storing all registrations ever since," The Register quoted Anders Nilsson of CTO at Swedish security distributor EuroSecure, in a blog post on the breach.

 

He added the data was found by someone sweeping websites for publicly accessible, but non-linked (hidden) folders, looking for either porn or sensitive material like this, "and struck gold."

 

In turn, the sensitive files were uploaded to an FTP site and released as a torrent, although the torrent is no longer available.

 

The breach became public knowledge this week via a thread on Flashback.org, Sweden’s largest web forum, which includes samples of some of the harvested files.

 

According to The Register, the affected site - chat.youporn.com - was taken down on February 21.

 

Before this, the site offered "regular" chat with different rooms and moderators, and the possibility of sending audio or video to other members of the forum.

 

On the other hand, the main YouPorn.com site appeared to be operating normally.

 

A separate article on tech site Gizmodo said YouPorn has already taken steps to contain the breach.

 

It said YouPorn completely disabled the chat function, which will remain so until a third-party security analysis has been completed.

 

"YouPorn continues to ensure that all appropriate measures and tools are in place to maintain the security of its infrastructure, and to safeguard the privacy of its users," it quoteed Manwin Holding SARL spokeswoman Kate Miller as saying in a statement. — TJD, GMA News