http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/31/myspace_spam/
By Dan Goodin
San Francisco
31st January 2007
A handful of enterprising people - at least one of them a teen - has
devised a Javascript that allows its owner to temporarily access the
browser's MySpace account, according to a security professional who was
among the first to publicly write about the service.
These people also may have managed to spam about 1.5 million MySpace
accounts, according to a Google Search. They pulled off the latter feat
in less than three weeks by collecting thousands of passwords, according
to one of the operators, in a venture that would appear to violate
numerous terms governing the use of the social network.
Spam on MySpace appears to be reaching epidemic levels. Another barrage
of junk messages appears to have affected 145,000 MySpace accounts,
according to a separate Google search. ("I need you to do this for me, i
want to get a free iPhone so i have to get 50 of my friends to go to the
thing below and have them put their zipcode in," it reads. "If you could
do that it'd be sooo awesome. THANks!!")
Stalkertrack.com advertises a free and upcoming service that tracks the
people who visit a client's MySpace profile. Users are required to
divulge their MySpace login credentials, and until we interviewed one of
the site owners, terms of service permitted Stalkertrack to log in to
MySpace users' account and send each friend spam messages promoting the
site, according to this Google cache. (Those terms were removed in the
last 24 hours.)
MyScare
An analysis on Monday of the Javascript used in this demo showed the
kind of data Stalkertrack is able to collect, according to Eric Sites,
VP of research at Sunbelt Software. It included the IP address, user
name, profile picture, browser type, screen resolution, and in many
cases email address of every MySpace user who visited a client's
profile.
MySpace has been under fire for an onslaught of worms, pedophile
come-ons and phishing attacks over the past few months. While its 90
million-strong user base makes it a favorite target for many miscreants,
a host of decisions about the site's technical underpinnings make their
job easier.
For instance, MySpace cookies, which Stalkertrack uses to extract
visitor information, stores a wealth of data in the clear, including
email addresses and other MySpace accounts accessed on the same PC. Add
to that the ease of embedding powerful Javascript into pages, and you
have a recipe for potential privacy breaches.
What's more, MySpace hosts authentication cookies and user-maintained
pages on the same domain, making it harder to prevent cross-site-scripts
like the one used by Stalkertrack, says Randolf Jorberg, the
quick-spotting security professional.
Josh Holly, who helped device the Javascript, was able to gain
temporarily access to the section of Jorberg's MySpace account that
edits his profile, he said. The script pulled out the verification code
stored in a cookie sitting on Jorberg's hard drive. Armed with the
session ID a person can make changes to the account - except for
changing the email address or password - for up to six hours.
We repeatedly called and emailed MySpace representatives to ask if they
were aware of Stalkertrack. We got no response. [Social? Networking?
Hardly - Ed.]
The Stalkertrack service has yet to launch and likely will not reveal
email addresses and other sensitive information once it does, said
Holly, who is listed as the owner of a site related to Stalkertrack. For
now, the site is using the client sign ups to virally get the word out
to MySpace friends. It will begin offering the tracking service within
the next few months, said Holly, who added he was 17 years old. The
Stalkertrack domain name was created on Jan. 1.
The site has convinced about 10,000 MySpace users to turn over their
login details, according to a second person affiliated with the
business, who wouldn't give his name. (Holly said the number was 100,000
to 300,000, a figure that struck us as unrealistically high.) A bot uses
the information to access the account and sends a spam to each user
friend. This second person said the site quickly dumps the account
password and doesn't sell the email addresses or use them for spamming
purposes.
Stalkertrack is by no means the only outfit offering the tracking of
visitors to MySpace user pages. Indeed, eBay auctions purport to sell
similar scripts. And a host of sites offered similar services as long
ago as last May, according to Security Fix.
The sheer number of MySpace accounts displaying Stalkertrack's service
demonstrates the power of viral marketing. It also is a wake-up call
about the potential dangers that lurk underneath.
While there's no evidence suggesting Stalkertrack has done anything
other than send millions of messages advertising the future service,
Jorberg points out recommendations from trusted friends could easily
convince users to download and install malicious payloads.
MySpace has not weighed in on whether it believes the service, and the
thousands of users who surrendered their passwords, have violated
MySpace terms of service. By our reading, however, Stalkertrack has run
amok of several conditions, including the sending of junk email, the
soliciting of passwords for commercial use and using the account, user
name or password of another member. Those users who signed up for the
service may also have violated terms barring the disclosure of passwords
to third parties.
The second person operating Stalkertrack said he got an email inquiry
from MySpace officials but no action was taken against the service. He
also said he doesn't believe MySpace terms ban his solicitation of
passwords, noting that Google Video does the same thing when MySpace
users want to embed content on their profile.
MySpace is perhaps the site that best exemplifies the power of Web 2.0.
At its current course, it may soon be the poster child for Spam 2.0.
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