Security Community Raises Money for Researcher Snubbed by Facebook Bounty
wired.com
wired.com
I am concerned "gofundme" will not be able to pay out to Palestine , I don't think paypal will work there and I don't even think USPS will deliver there? I know Israel will not allow Palestine to mail out internationally.
update: they will NOT likely be able to pay out
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Getting-started/Palestin...
Palestine is not listed -> https://www.paypal.com/worldwide/
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Guy lives in a place with 22% unemployment and has not been able to work in two years.
Watch this interview if you have not already http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/19/tech/social-media/zuckerberg-f...
But I don't think gofundme will be able to pay out and therefore everyone's donations will have to be refunded.
Regardless of the response you get from a vendor, you don't make use of an exploit against a vulnerable target. That is the line that separates the good guys from the bad. Period.
Facebook has invested heavily in sandbox environments and automated generation of test accounts with test data explicitly for researchers to help demonstrate vulnerabilities. It is even mentioned many times on the page where you go to find the address to report issues to and learn about the bounty program.
1. Report to vendor and do not publicly discuss until they've fixed it
2. Demonstrate the exploit in public to prove that it works
3. Sell on the black market to Mafia/NSA/etc
The guy attempted approach (1), and didn't do a very good job of it, but it seems this was at least in part due to inexperience. Should he have worked more carefully to pursue option (1) first? Sure. But Facebook should have asked him for more information, perhaps pointing him to the guidelines.
So next he went to option (2). Facebook found the bug, and fixed it. Option (2) is infinitely better than option (3). I think Facebook should be extremely grateful to this guy - he even apologised for having to take this option in his post on MZ's wall, after (1) failed. Regardless of his & facebook's mistakes, they still should be thankful for him reporting it.
He was wrong, period, to post to a user's page. 100% wrong, and has no right to ask for the money, because of that. Facebook's response is exactly the correct response - fix the miscommunication, but remain firm in the denial of money to someone who broke clear rules.
You mean create a fake account? Isn't that against TOS?
> "use on established test account"
Where the instructions are in English, even after changing language?
> He was wrong, period, to post to a user's page
Mark Z. is not just any user. FB is publicly traded, yes, but he is basically Facebook. It's not like he 'hacked into' someone's account.
FB allows the creation of test accounts for security research https://www.facebook.com/whitehat/accounts/
If you want responsible disclosure, the guy just did the first step, reporting to your security team privately. Guide him, learn the thing, reward and move on.
If there had been a small bounty on the line and it would have played out the same way, I'm not sure how I would have handled it. I'm all for responsible disclosure and wouldn't have any interest in posting it online or exploiting it. But what is the correct response if money is owed and you've already shared the exploit with the vendor?
Answer: not easily. The financial blocks between that area and the rest of the world are just as real as the geopolitical ones. It will be impressive if they do it, short of a guy meeting him at a checkpoint and throwing an envelope to him.
Bitcoins for these services add nothing other than some extra % costs when using them, and still don't solve the problem of getting physical goods where he is.
And once you fix a bug reported by someone you don't get to deny their bounty. The best you can do is complain about the methods used to demonstrate it. You're not in a position to fk with hackers we are ultimately the ones helping you.
We have something that is ultimately more valuable on the black market that Facebook are paying us so they should be handing out bonuses not stealing what we earned.
But that doesn't matter since the argument was ridiculous in the first place. If you cannot understand or read rules, that doesn't meant they don't apply to you. Also, he understands English very well.
else {
//Meanwhile somewhere in the black market
$parent->postFacebook("I'll be early from work today and have lost my key. Leave the key in the flowers.");
$child->postFacebook("Ok, no problemos.");
}Personally, I wouldn't leave my keys in the flowers because a random person I didn't know posted it on my wall.