Hacker discovers Gmail vulnerability that leaves any account open to compromise
A student and security researcher from Pakistan has found a serious issue with Gmail that makes it possible for a hacker to take over any email address.
The vulnerability relates to the way Google handles the linking of a primary Gmail account to another email address for the purposes of message forwarding. In just a few steps it was -- before Google fixed the problem -- possible to take over ownership of an email address by tricking the system into sending out the necessary verification code.
If a hacker knows a secondary email address associated with a Gmail account he is looking to compromise, Gmail can be fooled into sending the account verification email to any address. The person who found the flaw, Ahmed Mehtab, explains the conditions in which the flaw can be exploited:
