A long-standing vulnerability on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) website exposed private and restricted media for years before being quietly fixed this month. BleepingComputer learned of the flaw from an anonymous cybersecurity researcher, who said it had been exploited since at least 2021, despite having previously reported it to AAPB. AAPB promptly addressed the reported issue with a patch within 48 hours, verified by the researcher, and reinforced archive security, reaffirming their commitment to protecting archival materials. AAPB, run jointly by the WGBH Educational Foundation (GBH) and the Library of Congress, serves as a nonprofit repository of historically significant U.S. public radio and television programs. Rumors about the vulnerability began circulating after a rare Sesame Street episode featuring the Wicked Witch of the West briefly appeared on the Lost Media Wiki Discord, according to BleepingComputer. The Wiki removed the episode, calling it the product of a likely illegal data breach and warning members against redistributing it. By mid-2024, however, knowledge of the exploit had begun spreading across Discord preservation groups, fueling more leaks of protected material. Despite AAPB’s removal efforts, the vulnerability easily exploitable via a simple Tampermonkey script exploiting an insecure direct object reference (IDOR) vulnerability. Although the main media pages had partial protections, attackers bypassed them by manipulating fetch or XMLHttpRequest calls, allowing access to private content using valid media IDs without triggering proper access controls. While the bug has now been patched, it remains unclear how much material was accessed or circulated within data-hoarding circles. The AAPB leak follows another incident earlier this year in which PBS employee contact data was exposed and shared among “PBS Kids” fan communities on Discord. These incidents reveal how archive and fan communities can unintentionally access sensitive data, even without malicious intent.
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