Automatic text replacement let users spoof URLs ending in x, like netflix.com.

Automatic text replacement let users spoof URLs ending in x, like netflix.com.

Elon Musk’s clumsy brand shift from Twitter to X caused a potentially big problem this week when the social network started automatically changing “twitter.com” to “x.com” in links. The automatic text replacement reportedly applied to any URL ending in “twitter.com” even if it wasn’t actually a twitter.com link.

The change apparently went live on X’s app for iOS, but not on the web version. It seems to have been a problem for a day or two before the company fixed the automatic text replacement so that it wouldn’t affect non-Twitter.com domains.

Security reporter Brian Krebs called the move “a gift to phishers” in an article yesterday. It was a phishing risk because scammers could register a domain name like “netflitwitter.com,” which would appear as “netflix.com” in posts on X, but clicking the link would take a user to netflitwitter.com.

“A search at DomainTools.com shows at least 60 domain names have been registered over the past two days for domains ending in ‘twitter.com,’ although research so far shows the majority of these domains have been registered ‘defensively’ by private individuals to prevent the domains from being purchased by scammers,” Krebs wrote.

  • machinin@lemmy.world
    39·
    9 months ago

    And to think, the same guy greenlighting the processes and creating the culture that produced a problem like that, also heads another company that puts software in the hands of people called “full self driving” that controls a piece of equipment that is thousands of pounds and flying down our streets and highways at significant speeds.

    What a time to be alive!

    • goldteeth@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      24·
      9 months ago

      To say nothing of the whole, y’know, “grafting experimental hardware directly into peoples’ brains” thing.

    • crusa187@lemmy.ml
      4·
      8 months ago

      I recently found out that many high profile engineers from Tesla have left to create a new EV company called Lucid.

      The cars are pricey, but they look really nice. Might be worth checking out if you’re in the market and have a boatload of money burning a hole in your pocket.

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      9 months ago

      The cars aren’t what you should be worried about, he also has a company that makes brain chips meant to be implanted in humans.
      Imagine that that kind of technology could do to people when it matures.

      • machinin@lemmy.world
        6·
        9 months ago

        when it matures.

        Do you think Musk will wait for it to mature before doing whatever he wants with it?

        • Chainweasel@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          9 months ago

          Absolutely not, but I do think most people won’t adopt it until it’s mature and it likely won’t become a problem until lots of people have adopted it.