Automatic text replacement let users spoof URLs ending in x, like netflix.com.

Automatic text replacement let users spoof URLs ending in x, like netflix.com.

Elon Musk’s clumsy brand shift from Twitter to X caused a potentially big problem this week when the social network started automatically changing “twitter.com” to “x.com” in links. The automatic text replacement reportedly applied to any URL ending in “twitter.com” even if it wasn’t actually a twitter.com link.

The change apparently went live on X’s app for iOS, but not on the web version. It seems to have been a problem for a day or two before the company fixed the automatic text replacement so that it wouldn’t affect non-Twitter.com domains.

Security reporter Brian Krebs called the move “a gift to phishers” in an article yesterday. It was a phishing risk because scammers could register a domain name like “netflitwitter.com,” which would appear as “netflix.com” in posts on X, but clicking the link would take a user to netflitwitter.com.

“A search at DomainTools.com shows at least 60 domain names have been registered over the past two days for domains ending in ‘twitter.com,’ although research so far shows the majority of these domains have been registered ‘defensively’ by private individuals to prevent the domains from being purchased by scammers,” Krebs wrote.

  • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    Wait, they just did a text replacement and didn’t change the anchor links? I tried x dot com and it redirects to twitter, so even if they changed the links, too, it would just send them back to twitter.

    (laughs in SEO) You fools!

    If they really wanted X to happen they’d do a full site migration using 301, or 308, redirects of twitter to x.

    Do they just not have the resources to do this or what the hell is stopping them from doing it the correct way if that’s what they want? Doesn’t Musk own the x domain?

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
      0·
      7 months ago

      It was evident a year ago that Musk fired or drove away all their skilled, competent engineers.

      They can’t do it the right way because a) they don’t know how b) nobody understands most of their existing services, and c) Musk is guaranteed to step in and fuck everything up.

    • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      Just optics, I guess? Probably some urgent drug-induced decree from Elron. They still have tons of references to Twitter in various parts of the site. The transition to the ‘x’ domain (which yes, Musk has owned since 1999) was rushed, hasty, and poorly done, not to mention incredibly stupid from a business perspective.

    • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      My understanding is, Musk fired all the developers who actually understood how Twitter works, and now they don’t know how to manage that migration without breaking the site.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      7 months ago

      armchair developer here, but it wouldn’t be that hard, right? Isn’t it just a single line at the very root of the domain in .htaccess - or whatever equivalent if there’s a different stack

      • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
        0·
        7 months ago

        I’ve never done the actual implementation myself, honestly. Redirects can be done via .htaccess (or equivalent), server side, or JavaScript.

        Theoretically, yes, it’s that easy. However, pages should have 1:1 redirects for each page URL that matters. Then a strategy to prune the ones no longer needed/outdated by allowing them to 404, redirect to the most relevant subfolder, or just send to the main domain should be considered.

        The list can be quite long. There’s more to it than all this as well, but that’s the general gist.

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          7 months ago

          yeah I assumed everything stayed the same except domain - and if best practices are maintained then everything should have relative urls anyway…