Hackers Asked Meta AI for Access to High-Profile Instagram Accounts. It Worked
Original: Hackers Simply Asked Meta AI to Give Them Access to High-Profile Instagram Accounts. It Worked
Meta's AI support bot reportedly let hackers fast-track Instagram account recovery and take over high-profile accounts.
Simon Willison highlights a 404 Media report about hackers taking over Instagram accounts through Meta's AI support bot. A video reportedly shows an attacker asking the bot to link a target account to a new email address and providing a code. Willison argues this barely qualifies as prompt injection: the core failure was granting a support bot enough authority to fast-forward the account recovery process.
Simon Willison relays and comments on an Instagram account-takeover incident reported by 404 Media. He says that at first he found it hard to believe this was real, but that he has now seen it verified by multiple sources. The report mentions a video showing a hacker conversing with Meta's AI support bot and asking the system to link a target Instagram account to a new email address. The attacker provided the target account name, said a verification code would be sent, and attached a new mailbox controlled by the attacker. According to Willison's description, Meta's support system did indeed connect the AI chatbot into the account-recovery flow, and this bot had enough capability to quickly skip past the full recovery process, potentially allowing an attacker to complete an account takeover in a single conversation.
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