The Prime Minister in the discussion is Tony Abbott whose Instagram post with his boarding pass allowed a hacker to dig deep into a much bigger issue within the Qantas website.
When traveling, some people have the urge to share their journey with the entire world, especially on social media. This article shows how your urge to show off can expose your personal information to the masses.
Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott did the same back on March 22nd, 2020 by uploading a picture of his boarding pass on Instagram for his return flight from Tokyo to Sydney. However, he didn’t know of the downside of doing so which was later revealed and reported by security researcher Alex Hope in their report titled:
“When you browse Instagram and find former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s passport number.”
Analyzing the boarding pass, Alex came across various identification points including his carrier, the flight number, baggage details, etc. Yet, the main 2 factors that got the job done was the “Booking Reference” and the passenger’s last name.
Tony Abbott’s Instagram post
Using these, Alex went on to Qantas airline’s website and was able to access both the “Manage Booking” and “Check-in” section which required exactly these 2 details for someone to edit their flight information or make other changes.
Qantas Airline’s customer dashboard
While this may seem to be the end of the road, it wasn’t. Moving on, the resea ..
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