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    Brief Facebook exploit allowed viewing of private photos

    Brief Facebook exploit allowed viewing of private photos

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    A Facebook exploit that compromised the privacy of user photos drew attention today, though it wasn't long before the company fixed the issue.

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    Mark Zuckerberg with Chicken
    Mark Zuckerberg with Chicken

    Mark Zuckerberg never intended for the above picture of the Facebook founder triumphantly wielding a chicken to make the rounds on the internet. Unfortunately, that was before a newfound (though short-lived) exploit allowed prying eyes to view a select number of a user's recently uploaded photos regardless of account settings. This wasn't exactly something that could happen by accident, however. The workaround involved falsely reporting the intended target for an inappropriate profile photo and then checking an option that would display additional images for potential flagging. Devious tactics by any standard, really.

    While Facebook acted swiftly in patching up the unintended privacy vulnerability — originally detailed on the Bodybuilding.com forums it wasn't fast enough to prevent a post over at imgur that features a collection of Zuckerberg's personal pictures. Going to such lengths is a bit invasive for our liking, but serves as a rather impactful reminder that even the company CEO is susceptible to hacks at the popular social networking destination.