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Twitter source code leaked on GitHub, according to court filing - The Washington...

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source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/27/twitter-source-code-leak-github/
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Twitter says parts of source code posted online, seeks leaker

Updated March 27, 2023 at 4:24 a.m. EDT|Published March 27, 2023 at 12:57 a.m. EDT
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Twitter submitted a subpoena Friday asking GitHub, an online platform used by software developers, to identity the user who leaked its source code. (Gregory Bull/AP)
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Some of the computer code that powers Twitter has been leaked online, according to a legal filing, in the latest challenge encountered by the social network since it was bought by Elon Musk.

A user named in court documents as “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” allegedly shared parts of Twitter’s source code on GitHub, an online platform used by software developers. Twitter filed a subpoena on Friday requesting GitHub identify the leaker who posted the code, in an alleged breach of copyright, and anyone who downloaded the code.

A GitHub spokesman confirmed in an emailed statement that the company complied with a request from Twitter to take down the leaked code but would not comment further. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment Sunday night.

It is unclear when the code was posted online or whether its leak exposes Twitter to security vulnerabilities or hackers. But Lukasz Olejnik, an independent cybersecurity researcher and consultant, said that he doubts users’ personal information is at danger because of the leak and that the biggest risk for Twitter appears to be “reputational.”

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It’s possible many people were able to access the source code, and “once this is leaked, it cannot be put back in the bottle entirely,” he said in an email, adding: “Whether an exploitable vulnerability can be spotted and utilized is difficult to gauge immediately.”

Twitter’s takedown request to GitHub described it as “proprietary source code for Twitter’s platform and internal tools,” while the legal filing called it “various excerpts of Twitter source code.”

Musk said this month that Twitter would “open source” all of the software code it uses to recommend tweets on March 31.

“People will discover many silly things, but we’ll patch issues as soon as they’re found!” Musk wrote on March 18. “Providing code transparency will be incredibly embarrassing at first, but it should lead to rapid improvement in recommendation quality. Most importantly, we hope to earn your trust.”

Twitter has been in a state of turbulence since Musk took over the company and cut thousands of jobs. The New York Times on Sunday was first to report on the legal filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.


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