17-Year-Old Behind Massive XSS Attack On Twitter

A second worm has emerged as a threat on Twitter today, after a previous worm showed up yesterday spreading advertising, and its author said more could be on the way. 17 year-old Mikeyy Mooney from Brooklyn, New York has claimed responsibility for both worms.

The first worm emerged on Saturday when Twitter profiles began posting messages which encouraged people to visit StalkDaily.com. The owner of the website, Mikeyy Mooney, told BNO News that he was responsible. "I am aware of the attack and yes I am behind this attack," he said. Mooney said he created the worm to "give the developers an insight on the problem and while doing so, promoting myself or my website."

Later that evening, Twitter said they had resolved the problem. "We've taken steps to remove the offending updates, and to close the holes that allowed this worm to spread," a statement read.

Hours later, a new worm which appeared to be similar to the first one, made its way into the Twitter community. Infected users spread messages such as "Mikeyy is done" and other Twitter users start doing the same if they are logged on to the site and visit an infected profile, which makes the worm unusual as no action is required to get infected. A review of the script by BNO News showed it is the same worm from Saturday, except for the fact that it is spreading a new message and is hosted on a different server. Mooney confirmed to BNO News that he is behind the two worms and said more could be on the way. "[It] seems they still haven't sanitized their input fields for the XSS," he said. It is currently unknown if he may face legal action.

The worm is more of an annoyance that a real threat, as no passwords or sensitive information are stolen. Here are the steps to remove it if you find this on your Twitter account:

1. Go to www.twitter.com.
2. Log in to the infected account.
3. Go to "Settings" in the menu.
4. Under "Name", remove the text in the field (which has been edited by the worm).
5. Remove the text under "More info URL", which has also been edited by the worm.

When you completed those 5 steps, the worm is no longer active on your profile but you can get easily re-infected. For now, until the problem has been solved, BNO News recommends that you not visit any accusation Twitter profiles.

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