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Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability

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Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability

#1
Hi HN,

My Twitter account was recently hijacked using what I believe is either a vulnerability or exploit within Twitter. My username was one that I consider to be somewhat sought after (I had offers to sell it).

I am not able to contact anyone at Twitter support. The Twitter support platform is just automated steps that do not help in any way.

My followers, tweets, and most importantly the connections I’ve made are gone. Simply vanished. My e-mail address is no longer associated with a Twitter account. Ifound a user on HN who had a similar issue [0] but my mobile device wasn’t hacked.

Here’s what I know:

I received an e-mail from Twitter stating that my e-mail address was changed. Prior to this I did not receive anything else from Twitter - no login notice, no two-factor authentication code, etc…

My Twitter password is/was 64 characters and is stored in KeePass. I had two-factor auth enabled on my account which was linked to my mobile. I retain sole access to all of my devices and that e-mail address. As far as I know, nothing that I own has has been compromised.

Whoever has control of my Twitter account joined Twitter in May of 2019. I suspect they may have bypassed the existing username restriction during registration.

I’ve opened multiple support requests with Twitter. All of those have been closed. I submitted a bug bounty report on Twitter’s HackerOne page [1] but it was promptly closed citing no access to individual accounts.

I reached out to some current and former employees on via Twitter and only had one response from a former employee. I also reached out to a few Twitter employees via e-mail to no avail.

I’m hoping that someone here might be able to at least offer me some advice. I doubt I’ll ever see my account again but figured this was worth a shot. Thank you for your time.

Scott

[0] - https://medium.com/@simon/mobile-twitter-hacked-please-help-2f65c691edf8 [1] - https://hackerone.com/twitter

Re: Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability

#4
Did you have a phone number associated with your Twitter account? If so call your mobile provider and ask if any changes have been made recently, especially by store employees. If you have two factor set up they most likely removed it and reset your email address using phone verification and intercepted the text message.

For everyone else... go check your Google, Github, etc. accounts and make sure you do not have a phone number listed.

Re: Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability

#7
I enjoyed using Twitter for 9 years with my firstnamelastname account. Then I lost access to the email address and there is no support to help me regain access. I'd even pay them something to verify my identity and account.

Oh well i havent used Twitter in years and wont unless I gain access back to my account.

Re: Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability

#8
I've had my twitter account for 10 years https://twitter.com/mkrn and then one day I decided to follow a few people from an article I've read all at once. Then twitter blocked by account and removed all my followers. Have no ability to DM them either. I filed complaints but no response

Re: Ask HN: Twitter account stolen by presumed vulnerability

#9
These big tech companies are unaccountable to anyone except shareholders (and even then, not always). Your only hope is having a friend in the company, which is a ridiculous way of solving problems.

Given a bad situation, the best solution is to just stop using Twitter. A week without it and you won't miss it.

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