The bug has now been fixed.
Twitter is asking users to change their account password immediately. This comes in after the social media giant identified a bug that was storing unmasked passwords in an internal log visible to everyone on Twitter. Which isn’t the case normally, Twitter clarified. Twitter explained everything about the glitch and said that the issue has now been fixed. All the stored passwords have now been removed from the platform and are no longer visible to anyone, assured Twitter on Thursday via a blog post.
« We ask that you consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password, » Twitter informed the users. Currently, Twitter has over 330 million users, and the social media giant is asking each one of them to change their Twitter account password. The bug that it identified was storing the passwords in readable text on its internal computer system, which isn’t the case normally.
Twitter usually masks passwords through a process called hashing, which replaces the actual password with a random set of numbers and letters in Twitter’s system. « This allows our systems to validate your account credentials without revealing your password. This is an industry standard, » Twitter said in the blog post.
However, due to the bug, the passwords were stored unmasked, which means, they were visible to everyone at Twitter. Apparently, the passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process. « Due to a bug, passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process, » explained Twitter. The social media giant went on to clarify that all the passwords have now been removed. Twitter also informed that they are implementing measures to prevent this bug from happening again in the future.
The blog post did not reveal the number of passwords that were affected due to the bug. However, Twitter does confirm that the bug has now been fixed and investigation shows no indication of breach or misuse by anyone. « As a precaution, consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password, » urged CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey via tweet.
ALSO READ: Hello Twitter, anti-Muslim tweets show your inaction on hate speech is getting nauseous
Meanwhile, Twitter is advising users to take precautionary measures to ensure that their accounts are safe. Here’s how you can keep your Twitter account safe:
–While setting up a new password, use a strong password by including special characters. Use a unique password and ensure that you don’t reuse the same password on other websites
