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I have been thinking about internet security a lot lately and I can’t help but think that sites like TinyURL, BitLy, Twitter and Facebook are a perfect way to get hordes of people infected with exploits. If you think about it, it’s not that hard to do at all and I think you could get this implemented in an afternoon. The only trick would be getting someone with significant reach to tweet your site link.

So, how would one do this? Well, you could take an XSS approach like this kid, Michael “Mikeyy” Mooney, or you could just brute force someone’s account. After you get in you can simply post a shortened URL and ask for the repost. At this point, on the internet, people are so mindless that they will probably retweet blindly if the subject is compelling enough. Then you can use good ole Mikeyy’s technique to proliferate your malware across the network.

The obfuscation of the target site using TinyURL is so beautiful that you could do this on a host of sites. But, what if someone goes to the url preview of the TinyURL? Well, that is a problem, but with all the twitter tools out there that do not implement this feature it’s not a problem if some do go to the preview. See, it’s pretty easy to do this type of hack and quite frankly the brute force attack on the account is the only real annoyance in the hole process.

Here’s the deal, I am writing this article to keep people thinking about what they are doing online. It’s easy to get a firewall and an anti-virus and think that you are safe, but if you are clicking tinyurls and bitly links all over the place you can get hammered just as easily. Just be careful with your internet.

Tags: Computer Help, Rants