Gmail Bug Exposes E-mails to Hackers

Gmail Bug Exposes E-mails to Hackers

Written By
Ed Oswald
Ed Oswald
Jan 12, 2005
1 minute read
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UNIX developers HBX Networks have stumbled upon a bug within Googles Gmail that allows access to other users personal e-mails.

By altering the “From” address field of an e-mail sent to the service, hackers could potentially find out a users personal information, including passwords.

At first glance, to the average user the e-mail would appear normal. But by clicking “show options” within the Gmail interface, the “Reply-To” field will show HTML code that is actually a formatted version of another users e-mail, HBX wrote on its Web site.

HBX said that they think a missing character is tripping up Gmail and causing it to print whatever is in its cache, or memory, into the Reply-To field.

The group did say much of what they saw was spam. However, what troubled them was in at least one case they were able to see a users password.

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Ed Oswald

Ed Oswald is a freelance writer whose work appears on several technology sites as well as on Demand Studios. He has been writing since 2004 and graduated with a degree in Journalism from Temple University.

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