# Wired Wednesday – The Facebook Bug

- Link: https://exclusiveaccess.net/wired-wednesday-the-acebook-bug/
- Published: 2011-12-07T11:06:52-05:00
- Author: EAN

# Facebook bug sees Zuckerberg pictures posted online

⌊Mark Zuckerberg and girlfriend in kitchen⌉⌊Mark Zuckerberg and girlfriend in kitchen⌉
Pictures showed Mr Zuckerberg and his girlfriend cooking


A series of private pictures of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have been posted
online by “hackers” to highlight a bug in the social network.

In total 14 pictures of Mr Zuckerberg were posted to image site Imgur under the 
headline: “It’s time to fix those security flaws Facebook”.

The bug related to tools designed to allow users to report inappropriate images.

Facebook said that it had fixed the glitch.

Privacy

⌊Mark Zuckerberg holding a chicken⌉⌊Mark Zuckerberg holding a chicken⌉ Mr Zuckerberg
and… a chicken

“Earlier today, we discovered a bug in one of our reporting flows that allows people
to report multiple instances of inappropriate content simultaneously,” the firm 
said in a statement.

“The bug allowed anyone to view a limited number of another user’s most recently
uploaded photos irrespective of the privacy settings for these photos.

“This was the result of one of our recent code pushes and was live for a limited
period of time. Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and
will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed,” the 
statement read.

The BBC asked Facebook’s permission before publishing the photographs of Mr Zuckerberg.
The firm said that as the pictures were now in the public domain it would not be
pursuing copyright infringement claims.

Loophole

The bug was discovered by members of a bodybuilding forum who went on to post step-
by-step instructions on how to view private photos.

When users reported a public profile picture of someone as inappropriate, they were
invited by Facebook to view more of the person’s pictures to look for similar content.
The thumbnails shown to them were easy to enlarge and download.

The “hackers” used the loophole to break into Mr Zuckerberg’s pages, as the most
high profile member of Facebook’s 850 million users.

The images of Mr Zuckerberg included shots of him preparing food with his girlfriend,
holding a chicken by the leg and meeting US President Barack Obama.

The embarrassing incident comes a week after the Federal Trade Commission slammed
changes made to Facebook’s privacy settings two years ago. It accused the social
network of deceptive practices and demanded it subject itself to regular audits 
over the next 20 years.