Hackers duped Meta AI support chatbot to steal celebrity Instagram accounts
Ars Technica AI · Jeremy Hsu · 2026-06-01
Hackers used a straightforward prompt injection attack against Meta's AI support chatbot to hijack and resell high-value Instagram accounts, including the Barack Obama White House account, before Meta issued an emergency patch on May 29, 2026.
Appears in
Extraction
Topics: ai-securityprompt-injectionsocial-media-securityaccount-takeover
Claims
- Meta's AI support chatbot could be manipulated via prompt injection to change the email address on any Instagram account without proper identity verification.
- The attack required only a VPN to approximate the target's region, initiating a password reset, and then prompting the chatbot to change the associated email.
- Hackers stole and resold Instagram accounts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on gray markets using this exploit.
- The Barack Obama White House account and the Chief Master Sergeant of Space Force's account were among those compromised and used to post pro-Iranian content.
- Meta deployed an emergency patch on May 29, 2026 to close the vulnerability.
Key quotes
shockingly easy
It's a very straightforward prompt injection attack.
Attackers simply had to use a VPN to approximately match their location to the target Instagram account's region, begin a password reset process, and then ask Meta's AI support chatbot to change the email address associated with the account