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submitted 6 days ago by sqgl@beehaw.org to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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[-] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 30 points 6 days ago

Does anyone remember an article/interview a while back where Mark Fuckerberg shamelessly admitted that he chose not to hash passwords in the original Facebook codebase specifically because he wanted to be able to log into his users' other accounts that use the same password? I swear I remember reading something like this but now I can't find it.

[-] miau@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 5 days ago

Your memory is not far off. Mark used failed logins to access other people's emails:

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-hacked-into-the-harvard-crimson-2010-3

I cant say if he intentionally saved passwords unencrypted, but he certainly saved login attempts

[-] delirious_owl@discuss.online 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Usually these services have god mode where they can see a UI from a given user. They don't need the password.

This sounds like a rumor spread by someone who doesn't understand tech

[-] FrederikNJS@lemm.ee 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The OP made the argument that Zuckerberg wanted to know their passwords, such that if the users reused the same passwords elsewhere, then he would be able to log in there and check out their accounts.

For example he could have seen a profile he was interested in, nabbed their password and looked into their email.

Not that he wouldn't have godmode on their Facebook account, and needed their password to access their account, because of course he could have just accessed those accounts without needing the password.

I have not heard this rumor before, though I wouldn't be completely surprised if it was true.

[-] delirious_owl@discuss.online 2 points 5 days ago

Well, Facebook did have an auth method that involved promoting you for your password so that they could log into your email and get an OTP iirc

It wasn't zuckerberg doing something in secret. It was an explicit protocol that was terrible. They got called out and stopped it. Kinda like early days of open graph.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Zuckerburg abused to attack journalists

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

Yes, he wanted to stop bad press ironically

this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
210 points (99.5% liked)

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