Facebook Fixing Embarrassing Privacy Bug
Facebook is fixing a Web programming bug that could have allowed hackers to alter profile pages or make restricted information public.
The flaw was discovered last week and reported to Facebook by M.J. Keith, a senior security analyst with security firm Alert Logic.
The bug has to do with the way that Facebook checked to make sure that browsers connecting with the site were the ones they claimed to be. Facebook's servers use code called a "post_form_id" token to check that the browser trying to do something -- liking a group, for example -- was actually the browser that had logged into the account. Facebook's servers check this token before making any changes to the user's page, but Keith discovered that when he simply deleted the token from messages, he could change many settings on any Facebook account.
