Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Master Password Was "Chuck Norris"
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A Facebook employee has given a tell-all interview with some very interesting things about Facebook's internals. Especially interesting are all the things relating to Facebook privacy. Basically, you don't have any. Nearly everything you've ever done on the site is recorded into a database. While they fire employees for snooping, more than a few have done it. There's an internal system to let them log into anyone's profile, though they have to be able to defend their reason for doing so. And they used to have a master password that could log into any Facebook profile: 'Chuck Norris.' Bruce Schneier might be jealous of that one."
doesn't need a password.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
It's not Facebook's fault: it's not like they actually set the master password to "Chuck Norris".
The real WTF is that "Chuck Norris" works as a password into anything: Facebook, your online bank account, your sister's pants...
Like you need another reason?
Nearly everything you've ever done on the site is recorded into a database
Considering nearly everything you ever do on Facebook is made public to either your friends or everybody - thats not shocking at all. The entire system is basically built around informing everybody of everything you do. You can't even perform an action without some app or another prompting you "Do you want to post this on your profile? YES/NO".
And for those of you wondering, it's obvious what the new password is;
The only man to have ever beaten Chuck Norris? Bruce Lee.
There's funny, and then there's irresponsible. Having "Chuck Norris" as a master password that grants access to any account is most definitely the latter. I would expect that from a couple of teenagers running their first web server, not one of the most popular websites on the Internet.
There is a time and a place for silly HTML comments or in-joke variable names, but a master password for a site with hundreds of millions of users is not one of them.
So this guy shot Chuck Norris in the face with a shotgun, and then he ended up in prison, because murder is illegal.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Rumpus: When you say “click on somebody’s profile,” you mean you save our viewing history?
Employee: That’s right. How do you think we know who your best friends are? But that’s public knowledge; we’ve explicitly stated that we record that. If you look in your type-ahead search, and you press “A,” or just one letter, a list of your best friends shows up. It’s no longer organized alphabetically, but by the person you interact with most, your “best friends,” or at least those whom we have concluded you are best friends with.
This is rubbish, isn't it?
I've just typed "a" into the search box and it comes up with an alphabetical list of contacts. The first one happens to be someone whos profile I don't think I've ever clicked on.
I think you meant because suicide is illegal.
...can actually type ******** into any system and login successfully.
You never expect irony, do you?
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@iyfwrestling
I wonder, what it is now... "Angelina Jolie"? "Bruce Willis"?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
At least the master password wasn't something weak like "Rick Moranis." By using Chuck Norris, you can tell Facebook was taking security seriously.
or else!
in fact, a little known subplot in the whole drama last week over china hacking into google email servers is that chinese intel knew the master password for gmail was "chuck norris"
problem was, when the chinese spies typed chuck norris into the human rights activists' email logins, the password itself would jump off the computer screen, hit the spy with five roundhouse kicks to the face, then smash their keyboard into dust just by giving it a hard stare
so the chinese government had no other choice but to hire hackers to break into the accounts. because even when they hired seven of the greatest kung fu masters and the most proficient in the eighteen arms of wushu in all of china to stand by while the spy logged in, plus jet li, plus jackie chan, and plus the reanimated cyborg admantium zombie of bruce lee, the chuck norris password still roundhouse kicked all of them into submission
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I’m not going to give you the exact password, but with upper and lower case, symbols, numbers, all of the above, it spelled out ‘Chuck Norris,’ more or less.
Sounds like it was obscure enough to me. If a user just happened to be using that password they would have never known it was magic unless they thought to try it on another user id.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
The real WTF is that "Chuck Norris" works as a password into anything: Facebook, your online bank account, your sister's pants...
But it only works for Chuck Norris.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
... Paris Hilton. So anyone can get in.
Have gnu, will travel.
Unlike slashdot, which writes everything in code on paper and has mute gnomes who it in a locked vault.
Seriously, I expect this kind of idiocy from the AP, but I thought slashdot editors were supposed to be technical. Nearly every goddamn site stores user data in a database, and in nearly all these cases there are employees with the master passwords that allow them to see every damn thing. (Except, if you're lucky, the password.)
The cake is a pie
Don't look now, but you just propositioned a dude for sex...