Facebook Porn, Violent Images Giving Users Headaches

Have you noticed anything odd while browsing your Facebook news feed in the past 24 hours? Maybe your coworker posted a gory image of a dog or one of your friends’ statuses includes a photo of an over-sized male member?

If so, then you’re not alone. An unidentified Facebook hack is hijacking users’ accounts to post images of extreme gore, animal abuse and hardcore porn. Apparently, the images will appear as updates from your friends on your news feed. Of course, the images and links have nothing to do with the people that are supposedly posting them – your Nana is probably not flooding your feed with hardcore porn.

It’s thought that the pictures are probably spread through clicking malicious links. Nobody here at WebProNews has seen any of the images in question (we must have friends that aren’t stupid are cautious), but according to multiple sources, the images are extremely graphic. We’re talking dead babies, bashed-in heads, mutilated animals, erect penises and hardcore intercourse. So this isn’t your typical Facebook link scam asking you to “watch this video OMFG HILARIOUS,” although that might be how it starts.

The origin of the exploit is still unclear. What is clear is that users’ feeds are being overtaken by the images and the users “propagating” the content are unaware that they are doing so. There are also reports of messages requesting link clicks and mass photo tagging. Here’s what Sophos’ Naked Security had to say:

It isn’t presently clear precisely how the offending content has been spread – whether users are falling for a clickjacking scheme, are being tagged in content without their knowledge, have poorly chosen privacy settings, have been tricked into installing malicious code, or have fallen victim to another vulnerability inside Facebook itself.

So people could be clicking on harmless-looking links to something about one of the Kardashians and BOOM – penises and guts are being spread from their account. A quick check of Twitter shows that this problem is affecting quite a few users:

Some are suggesting that the issues might have something to do with Anonymous and a rumored “Guy Fawkes Virus,” which is supposed to attack Facebook. There’s been no confirmation on this from Anonymous (not like it’s always easy to get “confirmation” from Anonymous).

In a way, watching everyone freak out over some penis pictures popping up on their feeds is kind of funny. On the other hand, there are young teens on the site – and even your grandma in some cases. Plus, nobody really wants to log on to Facebook and see a dead baby.

There’s a lot of bitching going on right now about all of these images, and a lot of threats from people saying they are going to leave Facebook. But if we know one thing about people and their Facebook it’s that people never really leave Facebook – no matter how much they bitch.

Facebook is no stranger to porn/odd images spam. But according to most reports, this incident includes much more graphic material than the normal fare. Facebook told ZDNet that they “are aware of these reports and are investigating the issue.”