Black Hat: Organiser’s video stream hacked by Mozilla security boss

Red faces all round.

The supplier of video streaming for the Black Hat 2010 conference has been caught out by Michael Coates, Mozilla’s head of web security.

Coates was unable to attend the conference in person but had the option of paying US$395 to watch some of the presentations streamed over the internet by Inxpo.

However, a simple Google search by Coates found a login screen which allowed anyone with an email address to open an account and view the video without inputting any credit card information.

“Now, to be fair, Black Hat didn't operate this video service themselves,” he wrote in his blog.

“But it’s still a bit ironic that the largest hacking conference in the world this security hole in their video streaming service.”

This was the first time such a video streaming service has been offered and the organisers were taking video very seriously this year, with professional camera crews much in evidence throughout the briefings.

One area in which Inxpo and the organisers scored highly however was in fixing the problem. He treated the news to the organisers and within 30 minutes was in direct contact with Inxpo, who sorted out the problem in under four hours.

Black Hat founder Jeff Moss told IDG that such problems were to be expecting in a new service and it was usual for delegates to try and hack systems.

"It's kind of like their trial by fire: Welcome to Black Hat," he said.

He also praised Coates for his work.

"Well good for him, that's cool. If you can't protect your stuff, that's what happens."