Anand Prakash, who is an engineer, discovered a loophole in uber cab booking procedure, through which one’s ride amount would come to be zero by the end of the ride.
What is the cab booking procedure?
An Uber ride can be booked via an Uber app, where while booking a ride, an option is put forth he rider asking which mode of payment would he/ she choose. Different modes of payment include cash; charge it to their credit/ debit card and Paytm.
What is the trick?
While booking a ride, Anand Prakash didn’t specify the method of payment, he simply but anything random like abc or xyz in the mode of payment option; and when your trip comes to an end, the trip amount in your app would show zero.
What does the ‘hacker’ have to say?
“I was testing Uber application for security loopholes,” he explained. “This is how I was able to figure it out. It was easy to do”.
“Attackers could have misused this by taking unlimited free rides from their Uber account” he added.
Does the free ride option still exist?
He identified the issue, which has now been resolved, in August last year and was rewarded by Uber through its bug bounty hunters programme.