LJ security holes

[yendi]

So, you saw the announcement yesterday about LJ changing URLs for all accounts because of security risks, and were wondering what, exactly, those risks were (and you, like me, likely lacked the patience to weed through all the comments)?

The Washington Post explains.

Link courtesy windswept.

Comments

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that was interesting to read.

[yendi]

*nod* I wish I'd heard about some of it before. Makes me at least a little bit paranoid.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Thanks, man! I actually remember seeing a message from someone called Bantown in a community talking about how he hijacked the account, but it was gone when I reloaded the page. So, yeah. Wow.

[yendi]

Hunh. This was the first I'd heard of it. Still, intriguing stuff.

[leonardpart6.livejournal.com]

Other than general pranksterism, what's the point in hacking into LJ accounts? Just seems kinda lame. (But then, maybe my perception of hackers is skewed by the movies, and deleting someone's post about their New Year's party is the real-life equivalent of breaking into the NSA servers.)

[yendi]

I'm not sure what their motivation was, either. If it was exposing security flaws, they'd have informed LJ about the flaws themselves. If it was malice, it's on a petty scale that has no deeper meaning that I can see. Seems that there'd be better targets, no matter what the purpose.

[amokk]

Fun.