I would be cautious about viewing any Lemmy.world communities right now, and the Beehaw admins should make sure their credentials are locked down in case they get targeted next.

    • darrsil@beehaw.orgOP
      21·
      1 year ago

      Ah, didn’t realize they were already defederated. Still, admins should be on the lookout for an attack on Beehaw.

        • Fester@lemm.ee
          13·
          1 year ago

          People have multiple accounts - maybe even specifically to view .world, or on .world, and this PSA is what made them think twice before switching to it. I mean, you’re here reading and commenting on this post, and you’re not a beehaw.org user. But you could also have a beehaw account if you wanted. If you did, maybe you’d have been on it browsing local when you saw this.

          Not sure why this post is a problem. It’s a good PSA.

    • Not Merritt Stone@beehaw.org
      4·
      1 year ago

      Oh wait, so 2FA doesn’t fully work yet? I guess that explains why I’ve been having such a hard time trying to get it set up.

      • darrsil@beehaw.orgOP
        7·
        1 year ago

        It works, but it’s half-assed. The way Lemmy sets it up only works on a portion of authenticators, and ones like Authy isn’t one of them. Then it also doesn’t have a confirmation before enabling it, so you may think it’s working but then get locked out of your account when you can’t log in next time around.

        The best way to test it is to enable 2FA and set up the code, but keep your Lemmy settings open. Then open an incognito window and see if you can log in using the 2FA code. If you can’t, go back to the settings window and disable 2FA.

  • mutant@kbin.social
    8·
    1 year ago

    this is fucking hilarious, this is going to be a blow to confidence in the security of the fediverse
    i wonder if the websites that covered the reddit protest will cover this

    • loobkoob@kbin.social
      26·
      1 year ago

      Surely it’s not really any different to any other website’s admin having their account hacked/their password socially engineered? It’s not an inherent flaw in the fediverse as a whole, just a human issue.

      EDIT: see @Zephyrix’s comment below. It was a security flaw.

      • Zephyrix@kbin.social
        9·
        1 year ago

        This was not a social engineering. It was a JavaScript injection that stole browser cookies, bypassing password changes and 2FA.

        However, it seems lemmy.world was running a custom version of the UI. So it’s possible that it only affected their instance. Hard to say at this point.

        • loobkoob@kbin.social
          2·
          1 year ago

          Oh, well in that case it’s a little more concerning. But I don’t expect it to be a long-term issue. It certainly isn’t a serious blow to my confidence in the security of the fediverse, that’s for sure! It being a somewhat minor breach may be a blessing, also; it means there’ll almost certainly be more of a focus on security going forward before something more serious happens.

    • chinpokomon@beehaw.org
      11·
      1 year ago

      Arguably it is a strength. Unless a user has used the same username and password for different instances, their credentials on one instance are shielded from exploit over the whole network. The potential risk can only really be determined by how security was breeched. If it was social engineering, then there isn’t any other direct concern. If it was a vulnerability in software, then the same attack could be played out on other instances, but that’s not any different than other systems like a Linux kennel exploit.

    • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.org
      10·
      1 year ago

      Run alpha software, experience alpha security flaws. It’s not going to really say anything about the Fediverse at large, but it’s more a tale of caution for the Threadiverse specifically, which is FAR younger, but has grown explosively, especially given that Lemmy is early beta status and KBin is alpha status

    • s08nlql9@lemm.ee
      3·
      1 year ago

      it would be a lesson for all instances, not just world. i hope they provide more details so others can take note

  • Lee Duna@lemmy.nz
    7·
    1 year ago

    They changed root folder / frontpage, if you access lemmy.world from web browser you’ll be redirected somewhere

    However, you still can access lemmy.world through applications

    • OptimisticPrime@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      1·
      1 year ago

      This is what I was wondering. It sounds like their frontpage is defaced but the underlying server is untouched. So if you login via an app you should still reach the server as normal?

  • TheOtherJake@beehaw.org
    5·
    1 year ago

    There IS one major problem. Many accounts only have optional email attached for .world, mine included. I think that means compromised credentials are a massive problem.

    • halfcalf@beehaw.org
      3·
      1 year ago

      Not sure exactly how they were hacked, but if the server is still compromised then changing your password now doesn’t do any good.