According to a new report, a Twitter security vulnerability discovered in early 2022 was used to harvest the account details of 5.4 million users, and the hacker is selling the set for $30,000 on the dark web.
A 5.4 million user hack is insignificant in comparison to the 478 million T-Mobile customers affected in August 2021. It is even minor in comparison to the 70 million AT&T customers affected later that month, Apple Insider reported.
However, according to Restore Privacy, the hacked data now for sale stems from a vulnerability discovered in January 2022.
The microblogging site acknowledged that this was a legitimate security issue and even paid a $5,040 bounty to the discoverer, “zhirinovskiy.”
“Exactly as the HackerOne user zhirinovskiy described in the initial report in January, a threat actor is now selling the data allegedly acquired from this vulnerability,” said Sven Taylor of Restore Privacy.
“The post is still live now with the Twitter database allegedly consisting of 5.4 million users being for sale.”
Taylor mentioned that they contacted the database’s seller to gather more information.
“The seller is asking for at least $30,000 for the database, which is now available due to ‘Twitter’s incompetence,’ according to the seller.”
The seller discussed the data on the website Breach Forums. The owner of the forum, Restore Privacy, has confirmed the authenticity of the leak.
The Breach Forums posting includes a sample of the data available. It appears to display publicly available Twitter profile information, as well as phone numbers and/or email addresses used to log in.
Passwords do not appear to be included. While it contains email addresses that could be used with Twitter’s “Forgot Password” feature, a bad actor would also need to know the login password for that email account.
