By Joshua Dare-
Twitter has recommended all of its users change their passwords after the company discovered a bug that exposed passwords on an internal system.
“We recently identified a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log,” Twitter announced on Thursday.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we ask that you consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password,” the company said.
Twitter, told 330 million users globally, said an investigation turned up no evidence of “breach or misuse by anyone.” As a precaution, the company recommended users to change their Twitter passwords and enable two-factor authentication to further protect their accounts.
A glitch in twitters hashing function that encrypts passwords, resulted in passwords being written to an internal log allows the company to validate the account credentials without revealing the actual password.
Twitter said on Thursday that a glitch had compromised many passwords, revealing them in writing to an internal log before the hashing function was complete. This has exposed the password to the company’s internal system.
“We found this error ourselves, removed the passwords, and are implementing plans to prevent this bug from happening again,” the company said.
“We are very sorry this happened,” Twitter said. “We recognize and appreciate the trust you place in us, and are committed to earning that trust every day.”
The social media network said a bug had caused “unmasked” passwords to be stored internally.
It added that there was “no indication” any of the details had been misused but warned users to take precautionary measures. The Eye Of Media.Com immediately took the precautionary measure to change our Twitter password following the warning, and many other publications and Twitter users will be expected to do the same following the warning.
Having one’s twitter account seized by an intruding party could be devastating for users.
