Hundreds of nude pictures of celebrities were said to have been leaked due to a vulnerability in Apple's Find My iPhone software.
The collection of photos, which were said to include nude images of actress Jennifer Lawrence, leaked through anonymous web forum 4chan.
According to Mashable, the people who posted the photos claim that the images were stolen from the iCloud accounts and cell phones of celebrities. Aside from Lawrence, other famous figures that had their nude photos were Kate Bosworth, Kate Upton, Jenny McCarthy, Victoria Justice and Emily Browning.
"This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence," a spokesperson for the actress told Mashable.
The people who posted the images on 4chan promised more revealing photos that can be bought through bitcoin and Paypal payments. The photos have since circulated on Twitter and on the Web, with more than 100 celebrities included in the leaks. Other personalities that had their photos stolen include Scarlet Johansson, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez. According to reports, the person behind the leaks claimed to have raised $40,000 in donations. However, a look at the bitcoin public ledger shows that he only received 0.2 bit coins, which amounts to around $95.
Some of the people included in the list have insisted that the photos were fake. However, there are indications that at least some of the photos were real. "To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves." actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead said in a tweet.
"Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this."
The bug, which may be related to a Github project called ibrute, takes advantage of a vulnerability in Find My iPhone service that makes unauthorized access to Apple IDs possible, thereby giving hackers a number of options for launching an attack. To use the ibrute flaw, the attackers would have needed an email address for a celebrity. However, it is also possible that it had spread through search of email inboxes of compromised accounts. The security hole has since been patched by Apple.
