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Researchers Build Malicious Facebook App

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the and-the-crowd-goes-wild dept.

narramissic writes "Back in January, a team of researchers uploaded a malicious program to Facebook to demonstrate the possible dangers of social networking applications. Called 'Photo of the Day,' the app serves up a new National Geographic photo daily, but every time it's clicked it sends a 600 K-byte HTTP request for images to a victim's Web site. Photo of the Day is still listed on Facebook, with its authorship attributed to Andreas Makridakis, one of the researchers. The application has 514 active users now, with several comments praising it. The study was published by the Foundation for Research and Technology in Heraklion, Greece, and the Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore."

17 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. This one's for Bugmenot! by Legion_SB · · Score: 4, Funny

    Attack!!

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    'a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM DATA WHERE name LIKE '%'... if you're reading this, it didn't work.
  2. Researchers! by goose-incarnated · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is there anything we cannot do?

    "Here, grab your ankles, this won't hurt a little bit"

    (That is a 100% truthful statement)

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  3. social networking considered harmful by suck_burners_rice · · Score: 5, Funny

    First of all, let's get something straight. Social networking is a BAD idea. Especially the sort of social networking that takes place at bars, clubs, parties, etc. The only safe place in the world is safe and sound all by your lonesome in your parents' basement.

    --
    McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
    1. Re:social networking considered harmful by Bieeanda · · Score: 2, Funny
      Oh good, I'm already there.

      Can I order hot pockets over the Internet?

    2. Re:social networking considered harmful by goose-incarnated · · Score: 5, Funny

      The only safe place in the world is safe and sound all by your lonesome in your parents' basement.

      Here in SA I've got 14cm hunter spiders in my parents basement! Seriously. These things have garden snakes for breakfast, so don't fucking tell me how safe my parents basement is - I only go in there with a team of sherpas and a pack of wolves.

      On the plus side, we've very few snakes left.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    3. Re:social networking considered harmful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not my parents' basement... It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

    4. Re:social networking considered harmful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      The only safe place in the world is safe and sound all by your lonesome in your parents' basement.

      Radon. Carbon Monoxide. Mr. Muggles.

      Nope, you're fucked.

    5. Re:social networking considered harmful by somersault · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's not a basement, it's a command centre

      --
      which is totally what she said
    6. Re:social networking considered harmful by Surt · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's a guy a few posts up with some hunter spiders that will take care of that grue for you.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  4. Re:I don't think I'm the first to say this but... by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 3, Funny

    Facebook applications are a nightmare, in my mind.

    Good thing, then, that in reality, they're for the most part fun and useful!

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  5. Re:BFD(?) by aftk2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I clicked it. Who else did? Don't be shy!

    --
    concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
  6. more direct malicious app by Narnie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why not build a more aggressive app and call it something like "Facebook Botnet Webapp Client 2.04.2" and then reward people minion points for delivered spam, DDoS attack packets, and friend referrals. No need to hide it as a beneficial application, people want to belong to something--why else are they on facebook?

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    greed@All_Evils:~#
  7. Oh that's nothing by joe_n_bloe · · Score: 4, Funny

    I used to serve a 2mb file of zeros at favicon.ico. I even used a bogus MIME type to give MSIE a fighting chance. Of course MSIE ignored the MIME type and charged ahead anyway.

  8. Re:BFD(?) by Clandestine_Blaze · · Score: 5, Funny

    You should have linked to Idle, now that's malicious.

    --
    Best "String" Ever!
  9. Doesn't work. by Puffy+Director+Pants · · Score: 3, Funny

    Facebook is still operational.

  10. Mod the main article down. It is redundant. by CFD339 · · Score: 4, Funny

    They built a malicious face book application. Big deal. They're all malicious and annoying. The whole damn site is a marketing work to pull personal data about interconnected relationships together for marketing.

    "Malicious Facebook App" is like "Table Mesa" (a place in Arizona). Its redundant Mesa means Table in Spanish.

    --
    The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
  11. Re:I don't think I'm the first to say this but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?