Facebook Flaw Exploited to Make Zuckerberg's Private Pics Public User points out security flaw by posting the CEO's personal photos online for all to see.
By Josh Voorhees
An Internet user exploited a Facebook security flaw to download more than a dozen private photos of the company CEO from his social networking site and post them to an online gallery elsewhere on the Internet, all in an apparent bid to point out the security loophole to the company.
The move appears to have worked. In a statement issued Wednesday morning, Facebook said that the glitch was the result of one of its "recent code pushes" and that the company has disabled the system while it fixes the bug.
According to the Wall Street Journal, step-by-step instructions on how to access photos uploaded by other Facebook users were anonymously posted to, of all places, the Web forum of Bodybuilding.com on Nov. 27. (Although it appears as though the info may have already been listed on a number of other online forums around the Web). The BBC explains that the bug was tied to Facebook tools that allow users to report a ****ographic or inappropriate image. Basically, when a user reported someone's public photo as inappropriate, they were then invited by Facebook to take a look at more of the person's pictures, including some private photos, to point out similar inappropriate content.
Someone apparently followed those steps to post a total of 14 pictures from Zuckerberg's profile to the image site Imgur with the headline: "It's time to fix those security flaws Facebook."
While the incident is big news for privacy advocates who have been critical of Facebook, for the rest of us it's the chance to sneak a peek at the private life of a billionaire. The (rather disappointing) photos include pics of Zuckerberg preparing food with his girlfriend, playing with his dog, meeting President Obama and handing out Halloween candy (full-size bars, of course). You can view more here, but behold our favorite:
