Lemmy.world and another instance have been compromised

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/1895271

FYI!!! In case you start getting re-directed to porn sites.

Maybe the admin got hacked?


edit: lemmy.blahaj.zone has also been hacked. beehaw.org is also down, possibly intentionally by their admins until the issue is fixed.

Post discussing the point of vulnerability: lemmy.ml/post/1896249

alaxitoo,

Swear this is the same guy that did the trending community spam a few days ago, he was angry about being banned for squatting on known subreddit names here on Lemmy, even the compromised admin account said something about it in her comments before this happened 🤦‍♂️

bdonvr,

Time to move from banning to contacting authorities then… spam is one thing. This is criminal.

Nepenthe,
Nepenthe avatar

Wait, was that the one that had a community list well into the twenties? Or was that someone else? I don't think all that stuff reached me, but I did hear about a wannabe powermod like a week and a half ago. Much good that does anyone in a defederated system.

alaxitoo, (edited )

His username at the time was “LMAO” and I think so… he did it again on another Lemmy instance but used a different username that time as well 😂

ElectronSoup,

beehaw isn't down, just very slow, which is it's normal state of being if we're being honest

jherazob,
jherazob avatar

It IS intentionally down, post by the admins

ImaginaryFox,

Seems like a good cautious move on their part.

R00bot,

Is blahaj zone still down? Haven’t been able to log in recently.

T156,

If they changed their server token, which they would have done to reduce the chances of the hackers reusing the same account tokens, you need to refresh your browser cache/cookies.

On desktop, you can do this by hitting CTRL-SHIFT-R, and on mobile, you probably just have to sign out and sign back in again.

Nerorero,
@Nerorero@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It’s up again. If you use an app, delete your cache and log in again

cole,
@cole@lemdro.id avatar

Hey everyone, this exploit is present in the custom emoji feature of Lemmy. Because lemdro.id does not use custom emojis, we are not vulnerable at this time.

darrsil, (edited )

Did this result in Lemmy.world being defederated from Lemdro.id?

Lemmy.world is back up and the hack is over, but when I view !android using my lemmy.world account I can’t see anything.

EDIT: In case anyone else is having this problem, the issue was my language settings. Despite having “Undetermined” set as a language, that was the problem - I clicked the little “X” to unselect all languages and then saved, and now it’s working again.

cole,
@cole@lemdro.id avatar

I have not de-federated other instances simply because lemdro.id is not vulnerable to this particular exploit

Banana,
Banana avatar

In all seriousness, no one is talking about this, but this is the one disadvantage of open source software being developed by volunteers, we don't know exactly how the admin accounts were hacked but the XSS stuff is really basic stuff, none of those fields were sanatised at all, and it makes me concerned what else has been missed, obviously the advantage of open source is in time this stuff can get fixed, but this is what happens when loads of people who aren't experts contribute to a site.

In comparison to sites where there is a fully hired developer team the quality of the code is significantly better. I really hope the passwords were hashed on these instances and the hackers didn't get plain text passwords or anything really bad like this.

One thing and credit to Ernest, as I've contributed there he does very thorough code reviews and his quality of code is very good, its why im confident kbin won't be hacked.

Fal,
@Fal@yiffit.net avatar

I think you’ve never worked in software, or even used software, if you think paid close source apps don’t have issues like this. They can be worse because they’re written by interns and no one there actually cares, they just want their paycheck

avidamoeba,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

I concur that the security behind closed doors I’ve seen is often non-existent. The incentives are typically stacked against security.

Banana,
Banana avatar

I work at the biggest software company in the world.
Sure there is projects with security flaws, but at the company I work, there is zero tolerance to big security flaws in the code, we have many automated checks, as-well as manual checks.

PupBiru,
PupBiru avatar

yes and no: there are a couple of schools of thought!

of course, code by a lot of people without proper review is… risky

however, at least it’s able to be reviewed! and in time and with enough eyeballs, hopefully that code will become far more robust. that’s the benefit of transparency: anyone can review any line at any time!

remember: closed-source code as plenty of vulnerabilities too! just if we can’t review it, it’s much harder to work out what they might be… often, closed source vulnerabilities can exist for years without the vendor ever patching them because nobody is calling them out on it… hell, they can even know that their software is actively being exploited and just… not tell anyone

sgtlighttree,

I don't see any weird content, but I couldn't log in. There's a notification at the bottom that says "logged in" but I'm still blinded by light mode.

PeckerBrown,

When I wanted to do some lemmying earlier, the LemmyWorld logo said ‘Israel’, and when I put my cursor over it, it said 'N***a Style. Then when I clicked the logo (stupid me, no doubt), it redirected me to a pic of some dude with a cigar, with the caption (iirc) “I r * pe kids in the woods”. I did a virus scan which came up clear. Dunno what else to do when shit like that happens, as I am not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

tal, (edited )
tal avatar

I have not seen any notice as to how either users or admins should mitigate the problem so far. Obviously, admins should update once a new release is out, but beyond that...

From an end-user standpoint, I would guess -- I have not looked at the code and have not been working on the security hole -- the following:

  • This basically allows the attacker to masquerade as a currently-logged-in user who has viewed their link.

  • Viewing content on a lemmy server while logged in as an admin right now is probably a particularly bad idea.

  • I don't know what the full impact is for a regular user account, but it's probably possible for at minimum posts to be deleted, and posts to be made as someone. In kbin, my account shows my email address, so if lemmy does the same, it would be possible to link an email account used for registration with a username. If you used a throw-away email account that is publicly-accessible -- as I did -- that could allow for full account compromise.

  • Viewing content while not logged in is probably safe -- maybe they can make Javascript run from a link, but without you being logged in, there isn't anything interesting that the attacker can do. If I were going to be viewing content on lemmy servers right now, and okay with being limited to lurking, I might do that for a few days until the issue is resolved and lemmy servers update.

  • I don't know if kbin is vulnerable. It didn't accept the URL given in the bug as an example of a malicious URL when I tested submitting one, but it's possible that it trusts URLs coming from federated servers, which I did not check.

db2,

Script kiddies. insert eyeroll emoji here

Tywele,

Here take this: 🙄

LillianVS,
@LillianVS@lemmy.world avatar

Some information I have posted to Lemmy.World:

I am not a super code-literate person so bare with me on this… But. Still please becareful. There appears to be a vulnerability.

Users are posting images like the following:

imgur.com/a/RS4iAeI

And inside hidden is JavaScript code that when executed can take cookie information and send it to a URL address.

Among other things. At this time if you see an image please click the icon circled before clicking the link. DO NOT CLICK THE IMAGE. If you see anything suspicious, please report it immediately. It is better a false report than a missed one.

I have seen multiple posts by these people during the attack. It is most certainly related to JS.

Hairypooper,

Wtf how is this even possible? Are the Lemmy devs smoking crack? If you’re going to run a reddit alternative, it may be wise to sanitize the fuck out of everything posted on there.

HobbitFoot,

People have said the platform is years old, but it didn’t really get tested until June. I wouldn’t be surprised if more issues like this are found.

Dio,
Dio avatar

¯_(ツ)_/¯ Lemmy.

lowleveldata,

You are free to open a PR

waltuh,

Not really helpful though is it? It’s like going to a friend’s house and asking why there is a sink hole in the middle of the floor that everyone is walking around, and they say “feel free get a hammer out”.

lowleveldata,

It’s more like when everyone is looking at the previously unknown hole and discussing how to patch it up and you start yelling how it is unacceptable as your friend’s house is a “bar alternative”

madcaesar,

Honestly I think you’re all right. This is such a basic vulnerability it should never existed… AND I told you so’s and bitching don’t help.

jherazob,
jherazob avatar

Little Bobby Tables strikes again

Now seriously, people forget that Lemmy is alpha software, and Kbin is even younger

PupBiru,
PupBiru avatar

the threadiverse wasn’t exactly popular until the reddit exodus

id probably flip it: are lemmy users smoking crack? if you’re going to run to a reddit alternative, it’d be wise not to choose alpha software!

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