McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants’ Data to Hackers Who Tried the Password ‘123456’
McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants’ Data to Hackers Who Tried the Password ‘123456’
Paywall removed: https://archive.ph/sn2Ud
I guess I need to change the password on my luggage
How do I know you're not making faces at me under that thing?
Yes. Do that. Thanks to the TSA, I can now open any luggage without traces. Saves a lot of time. Don’t have to enter 123456 anymore.
"Hacker" when the password could be guessed by an elementary student. Jfc.
Pool on the roof must have a leak
If you answer these three questions...... Say no more Mr. Sphinx!
123456!
There is no exclamation Mark!
12345? Amazing, I have the same combination on my luggage!
No.
This is completely different and unhackable. 12345......6!
I hate any company that uses or builds AI to screen out hires so, so much. Tagging metadata is OK, but filtering is just evil (am/have been a hiring manager).
The company also added that it’s instituting a bug bounty program to better catch security vulnerabilities in the future. “We do not take this matter lightly, even though it was resolved swiftly and effectively,”
I also hate it more that I can't hate them for doing the right thing.
They only did the right thing after getting caught openly doing the wrong thing, so I'd say I'd still be pissed.
They should have never put the system in place with such a simple vulnerability (which to me) says they take such a laxodasical approach to security that I wouldn't trust them even now.
Speak for yourself, I'm holding out hope that the universe is actually a little fair, and that the dolt responsible to creating that password, and subsequently fucking over millions of people has their testicles ruptured. Who are these idiots?
I'm so lucky that my password is hunter2
I don't know why you are getting so many upvotes for being a liar. Tried it on Lemmy.world and it doesn't work. I even tried it with a capital H.
All I see is *******?
That's cause I copied your password but it shows up as *******
See: hunter2
I forgot what it was referring to and searched a bit
https://web.archive.org/web/20060212043925/http://www.bash.org/?244321
In the future, actual hacking will just involve social engineering corporate ai systems ( aka prompt hijacking )
"Spaceballs: the HR Robot"
Seriously though, who the fuck uses 123456 as the password for anything? The morons pulling shit like this are making bank while the people brought onboard by McDonalds make scratch by comparison, and would be crucified for fucking up even a fraction as much as this. Millions, with six zeroes, millions of applicants' data stolen from an account with the kind of password that a kid would use on their home computer. Fuck, this makes me so mad, the sheer incompetence.
The bitlocker code for the desktop I sometimes use at work is 123456789. I asked IT who was the idiot that decided that was a good idea. The CTO apparently.
You just know new hires there must have to watch some anodyne video about data security that mentions secure passwords too.
I did something kinda similar when I applied. Why put effort into remembering a new password when I was only going to use it once to fill out a job ap? Wants anyone even going to do with my account?
McDonalds gets millions of applications? wtf?
ETA: Yeah, I guess they do.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/05/13/mcdonalds-hiring-surge/83595827007/
I don't think you were quite grasping the scope the McDonald's operates at. That's only a couple hundred per location, and fast food restaurants tend to have extremely high turnover, so that's definitely not an unrealistic number.
ETA? Estimated Time of Arrival?
One of us doesn't know what that stands for. I feel like the time my grandpa died, and mom sent me an email telling me "We're going to the funeral this Friday to pay respects to grandpa. LOL!"
I was quite confused. Turns out she grew up with "Lots Of Love". For a second she seemed like she turned into an absolute psychopath, for like....no reason.
ETA? Estimated Time of Arrival?
In this context, it means "Edited To Add". I do wish they abbreviated it some other way, since "Estimated Time of Arrival" is a much more common meaning. I would accept "E2A" or something stupid, as long as it was more unique. Alternatively, they could just use "Edit:".
Edit: added link.
ETA = Edit to add
Just trying to explain why my comment changed, in case anyone saw it before that LOL.
They have over 40k locations. Many are 24/7. They also surely churn through employees, have many part time employees, and probably get many more applicants than they hire.
The employees will be hired by the franchisees but they still use the McDonalds software.
Millions is not a surprise to me at all. Perhaps that it's tens of millions is a little surprising, but it still seems within the realm of possibility.
i mean there's a shit ton of unskilled labor out there whose vertical reach isn't that great.
What does their basketball skills have to do with this?
/s
They pay well everywhere but the US.
Why do you even need a hiring bot for McDonalds? Maybe for managers but a McJob is a McJob.
I help folks with disabilities get jobs, so I'm familiar. I generally avoid fast food for my people, because it's degrading and no one really wants a McJob. That being said, the bot actually makes it easier to apply, and they immediately schedule an interview...because they don't care what your resume says and they just need warm bodies to throw at angry customers. Again, I avoid it for my folks wherever possible.
"Hackers"
A lot of companies use Paradox. They shit canned all their HR down to the bare bones and hired Olivia, which the Paradox recruiter I worked with said is so bad he has to take over answering in chat half the time.
Wasnt it a security researcher and not a hacker?
"Hacker" doesn't always imply one acting with malicious intent.
If the 90s taught me anything, it's that hacking is done exclusively on monochrome green monitors, with dos. Except once they hack in, the monitor is full color, and somehow has access to every video camera on the planet. With the ability to enhsnce resolution seemingly to magical levels where you can see a clear reflection in someones pupil.
ENHANCE!!!
The difference in terminology is simple..
A legit paycheck.
The risk is that some unknown hacker discovered this vulnerability and abused it before the researchers discovered and reported it. It sounds like the company has confirmed that didn't happen, but they aren't 100% trustworthy in that regard, simply because they might have missed something.
yeah i know the risk, but the headline implies the data was exposed to a hacker who tried the password 123456 but thats not the case. A security researcher was investigating the application and accessed a test application with the password 123456 then found an API call which exposed the data and then he instantly reported it.
Paradox.ai’s chief legal officer, Stephanie King, told WIRED in an interview. “We own this.”
I didn't know Stephen King changed gender and is working for AI company.
When I used to work at McDonald's they required a fingerprint to clock in and out. They then apparently sold everyone's biometric data. I got some kind of settlement thing but it was like $20 or something. So that was nice... I guess
If the class action I found online is the same one. My old shitty job tried to implement biometrics and dropped it around the time of that class action. What a coincidence. So thanks?
You're welcome. I am glad to lose my fingerprint data for assistance of a friend
Sweet, now you can buy a big mac or a happy meal! Not both though...
Maybe the happy meal then. :')