Facebook Blocks Raunchy Worm

Facebook has reportedly blocked an exploit propagating on the social networking site, which spreads when users click to see a revealing photo of a woman.

Security firm AVG warned of the Facebook exploit that uses a suggestive female character to lure users into clicking on a URL, which will then post a link on their own Facebook wall, redirecting to the same page. AVG explains that in the past few days, some Facebook users encountered a photo of woman wearing a thong on their friends' profiles, along with the words "Want 2 C something hot? Click da button, baby!".

By clicking on the link, users were taken to an attack Web site with the same photo, where a button prompts them to click to see more. By clicking on the button, users who were signed in into the social network had the link automatically (without their consent) posted on their profile wall. It is unknown how many people have been affected so far.

Facebook has now blocked the URL associated with this site, and a company's spokesman told The Register that "the relatively few cases where it was posted" are being cleaned up. So far, there are no indications of the worm having other malicious effects besides reposting the woman's photo on affected users' profiles.

Despite social networking being a relatively secure environment for users, there have been several exceptions in the case of Facebook lately. As Facebook has grown to over 300 million users, the network is deem to see more attacks trying to exploit its click-happy users. And if you thought other services, such as Twitter, are safer, recent events proved it is not the case either.

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