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Instagram Private Profile Data Leak via Server-Side Authorization Failure

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1 unique sources, 2 articles

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Security researcher Jatin Banga discovered that some Instagram private profiles leaked links to private photos in HTML responses to unauthenticated users. The issue, which affected at least 28% of tested profiles, was reportedly fixed by Meta but dismissed as "not applicable" due to unreproducibility. The leak occurred due to a server-side authorization failure, not a CDN caching issue. The researcher provided extensive evidence, including a proof-of-concept video and GitHub documentation, but Meta did not acknowledge the root cause or provide a detailed resolution. Meta initially classified the issue as a CDN caching problem, but the researcher disputed this. Despite multiple requests for comment, Meta did not respond to BleepingComputer.

Timeline

  1. 31.01.2026 16:27 2 articles · 23h ago

    Instagram Private Profile Data Leak via Server-Side Authorization Failure

    Security researcher Jatin Banga discovered that some Instagram private profiles leaked links to private photos in HTML responses to unauthenticated users. The issue, which affected at least 28% of tested profiles, was reportedly fixed by Meta but dismissed as "not applicable" due to unreproducibility. The leak occurred due to a server-side authorization failure, not a CDN caching issue. The researcher provided extensive evidence, including a proof-of-concept video and GitHub documentation, but Meta did not acknowledge the root cause or provide a detailed resolution. Meta initially classified the issue as a CDN caching problem, but the researcher disputed this. Despite multiple requests for comment, Meta did not respond to BleepingComputer.

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