Facebook Implemented Whitehat Settings for Bug Hunters to Analyze Network Traffic

Facebook Implemented a New Whitehat Settings option to help bug hunters to analyze network traffic on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram Android applications.

You can enable the option from your own account for bug bounty purposes to detect server-side security vulnerabilities.

The new Whitehat Settings enables the security researchers to bypass Facebook’s Certificate Pinning security mechanism, reads the Facebook blog post.

Certificate pinning is a safe security measure to avoid the Man In Middle Attack to secure HTTPS connection. The method of pinning your trusted known certificate along with its fingerprint /serial number in a trusted store is called Certificate Pinning. You can get more details about certificate pinning here.

You can enable the Whitehat Settings option from the Facebook app, and the option is available only with Android client and not with iOS clients.

Settings within the Facebook for Android app

Recently Facebook increased the payout for security researchers to encourage them to find high impact Vulnerabilities. For account takeover, Facebook has a reward of up to $40,000.

Facebook recently announced that they stored hundreds of millions of user’s password in plain text instead of masking it as a human-readable format.

Learn:Mastery Web Hacking and Bug Bounty Bundle

Gurubaran

Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Recent Posts

CISA Alerts on Active Exploitation of Cisco Small Business Router Flaw

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an urgent warning on March 3,…

38 minutes ago

Threat Actors Exploiting AES Encryption for Stealthy Payload Protection

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a surge in the use of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption…

12 hours ago

33.3 Million Cyber Attacks Targeted Mobile Devices in 2024 as Threats Surge

Kaspersky's latest report on mobile malware evolution in 2024 reveals a significant increase in cyber…

12 hours ago

Routers Under Attack as Scanning Attacks on IoT and Networks Surge to Record Highs

In a concerning trend, the frequency of scanning attacks targeting Internet of Things (IoT) devices…

12 hours ago

Google Launches Shielded Email to Keep Your Address Hidden from Apps

Google is rolling out a new privacy-focused feature called Shielded Email, designed to prevent apps and…

17 hours ago

Hackers Using PowerShell and Microsoft Legitimate Apps to Deploy Malware

Cybersecurity experts are warning of an increasing trend in fileless attacks, where hackers leverage PowerShell…

18 hours ago