A new Firefox add-on called Firesheep lets “pretty much anyone” scan a Wi-Fi network and hijack others’ access to Facebook, Twitter and a host of other services, a security researcher warned today.
Firesheep was released Sunday by Eric Butler, a Seattle-based freelance Web application developer, at the ToorCon security conference, Butler said he created Firesheep to show the danger of accessing unencrypted Web sites from public Wi-Fi spots.
Firesheep adds a sidebar to Mozilla’s Firefox browser that shows when anyone on an open network — such as a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi network — visits an insecure site. “Double-click on someone [in the sidebar] and you’re instantly logged on as them,” said Butler in his short description of his add-on.
Since Butler posted Firesheep on Sunday it’s been downloaded nearly 50,000 times. Facebook, Twitter and other social site users now need to be more careful when using Wi-Fi hot spots as they will never know who or when someone is Hijacking their account.
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