PayPal fixes critical account switcheroo bug after researcher tipoff

  • 25 August 2013
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PayPal has fixed a critical flaw that allowed an attacker to delete any account at will and replace it with one of their own.
In April, security researcher Ionut Cernica discovered that US PayPal account holders could add an email address to someone else's account by visiting a PayPal webpage. This then allowed the account to be deleted, he showed in a demonstration video (beware, old-school techno soundtrack):
"After you added an existing email to your account if you go to the account profile and you delete the unconfirmed email, the original account will be deleted too," Cernica's report reads.
"After you removed the account, you can make another one with same username with your desired password, but you will have no money and is not confirmed."
In order to achieve verified PayPal status, the attacker would simply need to assign a bank account or credit card to the replacement username and go through the standard accreditation procedure. If the scam wasn't spotted quickly, funds could then be siphoned off as soon as they came in.
 
Full story - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/23/paypal_fixes_critical_account_switcheroo_bug_after_researcher_tipoff/

2 replies

Userlevel 7
Nice report Jasper!
 
Very huge security hole indeed!
Userlevel 7
Nice read, interesting video. 😉

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