Facebook identifies porn spam perpetrators
Facebook said it has identified many of those responsible for a wave of pornographic content that showed up on users' news feeds this week.
Those behind the coordinated spam attack, which began on Monday, leveraged a cross-site scripting (XSS) web browser vulnerability to flood Facebook news feeds with explicit and pornographic material, including images depicting acts of violence, self-mutilation and bestiality. The attackers managed to trick users into pasting and executing malicious JavaScript in their web browser URL bar, causing them to unknowingly share the offensive content, Facebook said in a statement sent to SCMagazineUS.com.
No user accounts or data was compromised during the attack. The social media giant is “pursuing the appropriate action” against those responsible for the campaign, a Facebook spokesman told SCMagazineUS.com on Friday. He declined to provide any additional details.