Social media boosting service exposed thousands of Instagram passwords

guest · Jan 30, 2020

Social media boosting service exposed thousands of Instagram passwords
January 30, 2020
https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/30/social-captain-instagram-passwords/

A social media boosting startup, which bills itself as a service to increase a user’s Instagram followers, has exposed thousands of Instagram account passwords.

The company, Social Captain, says it helps thousands of users to grow their Instagram follower counts by connecting their accounts to its platform. Users are asked to enter their Instagram username and password into the platform to get started.
But TechCrunch learned this week Social Captain was storing the passwords of linked Instagram accounts in unencrypted plaintext.

Making matters worse, a website bug allowed anyone access to any Social Captain user’s profile without having to log in — simply plugging in a user’s unique account ID into the company’s web address would grant access to their Social Captain account — and their Instagram login credentials.
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“Early analysis indicates that the issue was introduced during the past weeks when the endpoint, meant to facilitate integration with a third-party email service, has been temporarily made accessible without token-based authentication,” said Anthony Rogers, chief executive at Social Captain.

Instagram said the service breached its terms of service by improperly storing login credentials.

“We are investigating and will take appropriate action. We strongly encourage people to never give their passwords to someone they don’t know or trust,” said an Instagram spokesperson.
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Rasheed187 · Feb 1, 2020

It's a pretty dumb thing to trust your password with third party tools. On the other hand, sometimes these services can be handy. So perhaps an idea for Instagram to provide the same.

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