Instagram Bug Exposed Private Accounts, Allowing Unfettered Access to Archived Content
June 15, 2021
Instagram has resolved a significant vulnerability that permitted anyone to access archived posts and stories from private accounts without needing to follow them. Security researcher Mayur Fartade revealed in a Medium post today that “this bug could have allowed a malicious user to view targeted media on Instagram.” By leveraging the Media ID, an attacker could see details of private posts, stories, reels, and IGTV videos without following the user. Fartade reported the issue to Facebook’s security team on April 16, 2021, and the flaw was patched on June 15, leading to a $30,000 reward for his efforts through the company’s bug bounty program. Although exploiting this vulnerability required knowledge of the media ID, Fartade demonstrated that by brute-forcing the identifiers, it was feasible to send a POST request to a GraphQL endpoint and access sensitive information. As a result of this flaw, details like likes, comments, and saves could have been exposed.
Instagram Security Vulnerability Exposed Private Accounts June 15, 2021 Instagram has recently addressed a significant security vulnerability that permitted unauthorized access to archived media from private accounts. This flaw allowed any individual to view posts and stories of users without needing to follow them, raising serious concerns about personal data…
Instagram Bug Exposed Private Accounts, Allowing Unfettered Access to Archived Content
June 15, 2021
Instagram has resolved a significant vulnerability that permitted anyone to access archived posts and stories from private accounts without needing to follow them. Security researcher Mayur Fartade revealed in a Medium post today that “this bug could have allowed a malicious user to view targeted media on Instagram.” By leveraging the Media ID, an attacker could see details of private posts, stories, reels, and IGTV videos without following the user. Fartade reported the issue to Facebook’s security team on April 16, 2021, and the flaw was patched on June 15, leading to a $30,000 reward for his efforts through the company’s bug bounty program. Although exploiting this vulnerability required knowledge of the media ID, Fartade demonstrated that by brute-forcing the identifiers, it was feasible to send a POST request to a GraphQL endpoint and access sensitive information. As a result of this flaw, details like likes, comments, and saves could have been exposed.