Facebook App Creates DoS Botnet
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
You have new friends...and if you're not careful you may take a few of them home with you! Researchers at the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) just announced that they had created a proof-of-concept Facebook application capable of covertly herding users of the popular social network into a powerful—and malicious—botnet. The application, called Photo of the Day, delivers a different image from National Geographic every day, but...behind the scenes, special code creates a botnet of Facebook users launching denial-of-service attacks. In their paper the researchers called on Facebook and other social networks to rethink the way APIs are designed and developed. A detailed story on ZDNet provides much more information.