Shaadi.com hack ? How i am able to edit other people profile.

Recently from many facebook friends and some readers of Medianama has pinged me to know, how i am able to hack Shaadi.com accounts of other. It is very tough for me to reply to each and everyone, so this blog post.

Before I write few points

1. I will explain in detail, how i am able to get full access of other people profle
2. I have NOT HACKED, they have kept the site open by mistake. I am good guy :-), It is like I have not-unlocked the LOCKER, but they have kept LOCKER open.

What was the hack?

• To edit your profile, i need your shaadi.com userlogin/email + password. But what if i can login as you, without your id and password?
• I can see, To whom you have sent interest, Who all has sent interest to you, You accepted/rejected interest of which user.
• I can change your shaadi.com profile. [Any part of shaadi.com profile]  [Text change will go into moderation to shaadi.com, rest all change will reflect instantly]
• I can view your contact/mobile/land line number.
• Simply, I am logged in as you, I can even send interest to other people 🙂  Or whatever i may wanted to do with your profile.
• This hack was not applicable to all and any users, but only some users!  But as Shaadi.com  is out of top most 50 sites visited in India, that *Some users* count is also not small!

How to do the hack? [PS : Shaadi.com has fixed this, and after his CEO confirmed me on FB, I am disclosing how this was done]

• Open Yahoo,google,bing and copy paste without quote in search box. “eml-trk site:shaadi.com”  [Use Yahoo/bing, as it will give you more results, means you can access more profile]
• here is one simple link,
• Now you click on any of the result,  you will get access to some users full profile! Yeah, you can edit/change/express interest with those user 🙂
• You think this is Simple & Stupid? Even any 10th pass can get access of many many users in less than a minute time? Yes, you are right.

I Dont Believe

Do check Screenshot.

i can edit profile of shaadi.com user swati mittal. This is some random user, i dont know who she is!

the same user has sent interest to what all user?

PS1 :  I have masked detail which is either private/personal or sensitive.  User’s name is anyway publicly available.

PS 2 : Anupam Mittal  [who is CEO People Group, has sent FB msg to me]

“thx for feedback. Issue is addressed. Was a bug that got introduced in the last dev cycle.”

PS 3:  I have not disclosed to anyone “How to get access of profile of shaadi.com” until Shaadi.com has fixed it. If you are beginner hackers like me, follow good practice who is willing to fix the bug.

 

PS4 [Read it carefully] : I have not edited/changed/sent interest etc with any profile of which i was having access. But…. reported immediately to Shaadi.com and Team @ Shaadi has fixed that quickly.   However  apart from me someone else might be in knowledge of bug and they might have done nasty stuff, So it is best for you to  cross check your profile/sent interest/recved  interest in detail, You only had sent interest to some person, or Some hacker has sent  interest to other on your behalf. Same way, someone has sent you interest or hacker has sent you interest as other person.

If you are not hectic, something is wrong with your startup!

Startup, working hard, no sleep in 3 days during launch….
Post launch critical bugs, changes missed, user feedback, analytics….

Need improvement, push marketing, back to back interview with reporters, tv interview, person working with you get mood off, dont work for a day, time of launch he told he got new assignments, changes needs to roll-out, coding done, testing failed, needs to handle troll, Still you need to wakeup, answer question to users and friends, needs to code, needs to push. There is no way around…….. Do or die………….. Be crazy, work constantly 28hr a day !

That’s lot of fun…….. Handling tension, craziness and users !!!

Now dont get much senti…… if you are having startup or in past have startup, you understand each word…. not only understand but feel it…………….. And what keeps you going ????

This type of users crazy feedback !!!

Share ur car,
towards mumbai show ur pyar.
locatn nr ho ya far,
mak travel budies yar.
@smart_mumbaikar=safar widout suffer

link : https://twitter.com/?tw_e=details&tw_i=193577834361528322&tw_p=tweetembed#!/ChoopaRustam/statuses/193577834361528322

And looking forward to meet @ChoopaRustam tomorrow with TV9 team. You deserve a lot, your feedback keep us going…tirelessly!

Note to pluggd.in and Medianama !

I love pluggd.in and Medianama both, since almost they started !

The only thing i hate about both is they are very much and only india specific !!!  And hence there are two limitation

1. they only cover India specific news,review,start-up updates etc.
2. In turn, which will attract mostly Indian audience, and product/start-up/news covered on those site is consumed only by Indian readers !

I can surely **predict** both are having capacity to go beyond India but I don’t know why ?

Another interesting part, when I talked to couple of Startups, they told, why should they got featured in Pluggd.in or Medianama, instead they loved to be featured on TNW and PO (penn olson), interestingly both blogs have started india specific news recently, and if Indian Startup got featured on TNW or PO, they are having much wider audience then pluggd.in or medianama !

Unwanted Advice : Go beyond India. [I am not telling don’t cover Indian start-up, I am not telling to cut India specific news, I am telling to expand !]
It will help, start-up, and interestingly Indian Startups as well. It is win-win for everyone, and I don’t see any reason to limit yourself.

why mobile4mumbai’s project is secret ?

So couple of friends, startup folks, tech-geek and very efficient media people asking me since last 2 month constantly, what is the secret project ? Why i am not discolsing details ? Startup should tell and get early feedback ? copy cat is good ?

The only reason i dont disclose this project is not fear of copy pasting, but it will impact millions of people in mumbai the way they are travelling. I have made early mistakes and I am sure at right time, the news will be out.

Afsos/Regret :

Very rarely i do regret of my did, right or wrong. [i do many wrong things ! 🙂 ]

Today i was having wish to do Jain upvas (fast), whole day nothing to eat/drink and till 4:30 pm everything went well.

4:50 pm was feeling energy less (almost)
5:15 pm tried to control.
5:30 pm called up at home, talked to family members and informed about to break-up !
5:35 had two cup of tea.

In life, something you want to do by heart and soul, but sometime it will not happen !!! A great regret and failure accepted 😦

God gives my mummy and all other tapasvi a great sukh-shata and energy.

Jain Jinendra
Raxit Sheth

Non-startup manager (wants to execute his idea)

Super cool part :   Want to hear from You !!!!

This is Real. Just not relieving name, But the guy approached me is good friend, Management degree from *i*ie. I know him since last around 4 years, good industry experience and smarter than me !

As I am working on my start-up  full time [or even when i was doing job], was there to help startup, sometime from technical point, sometime from helping them in getting word out and sometime getting them intro with right people or first hire or first small set of beta users and sometimes just to hack their website 🙂 !  This guy approached me around 3 weeks back.

About Idea :
I found problem is interesting, and not the idea (or solution) ! But as you know **problem** is the main thing, idea/solution might got change later 🙂

Main problem is again Mumbai+Mobile+Commute/Transit ! On which We [yes, me + one guy from iit-kgp + few more friends having good exp in app dev!] are working at Mobile 4 Mumbai

We are trying to make super cool algorithm, works in cloud and some proxies work on your mobile [or using missed call (we are just trying) !] and as this guy was knowing some detail and he is also trying to solve similar problem, we got connected to discuss the idea.

Initial conversion was to understand the things out. After 2-3 call, powerpoint exchange by him here is what our mail conversation goes on.
<Normally i don’t put my mail out, and this time with permission from him !>   99.9% un-edited !

——————-
Hey  <Name>

Thanks,

I am interested in Idea, but quick queries/clarification

1. Are you willing to take plunge and got full time for this ?
2. If yes, can think further, or else my main focus should be mobile 4 mumbai. <hyperlink was not there in e-mail 🙂 this is edit ! >
3. Technically, some algo parts we are developing, it can be re-usable, Also key-challenge is non-technical and i do have some more thoughts. <but only if someone is  You are working full time 🙂 >

Raxit
—————–

Hi Raxit

You got me buddy!

One of the reasons why I threw the ball your way was my inability to devote time to developing this idea.

For personal reasons I am not in a position to get full time into this – at least for the next 12-16 months (may be after that, but not clear at the moment); there are some commitments due to which I can’t jump right now.

However, I understand your need to focus on your current a*******e application; and agree that key work to be done in this is non-technical. I have reached out to a couple of folks to see if anyone is keen on this – but no luck yet. I am especially looking for someone who has an understanding of managing field sales.

In any case, once you are done with your current apps, if the idea is still relevant and you are are interested, you can take it up. Same goes with me – if by the time I am in a position to take the plunge full time, and the idea is still relevant, I will take it up.

Also, feel free to share the idea with anyone who you think may find it keen to work on – I am more interested in seeing the idea take shape than doing it myself.

—————–

Thoughts to Discuss :
<deleted as I want you to put comment 🙂  and I wrote some comment to screw up and with really bad words that I don’t want to get published on my blog>
<Put both type of comment, keep yourself as Me and think and comment. Keep yourself as the idea guy and think and comment !>

PS : If you are willing to work on Mumbai+Taxi, I may put you in contact with the guy! <I will not put anyone in contact who is just curious to know the name of the guy !>

 

/rgs

Note to startup Techy

Hi Techy people,

you think you can code, i can also code. Coding must be done for technical founder. i also thought 🙂

One time, i got seek for 3-4 days. Work was getting almost stopped (even after failed attempt to code in bad health). Go and build team, it is most imp…

Easy to write, i just had talk with 4-5 small startup and they are finding difficulty in getting on the board folks. we are also having same difficulty….but luckily, smarter people are working with m4mum then i expected…..

they also code, i also code…. But i have to say, they are Faster, better and smarter than me… no shame 🙂

This is very imp. part to get on the board more techy/nerd/smart people than yourself.

Raxit Sheth

Indian startup founder and VC funding – some observation on both side

Sometime it will very easy to understand some startups are just eagerly looking for raising money  ! [Morpheus knows it, as when making couple of intro in recent days, just able to get this quick idea of founder’s mind from initial mail and phone talk but as they were building cool stuff (at-least i think :), going ahead with making few intros, and same experience from other startups and funding firm].Normally these folks are eagerly looking for money (without any actual execution), try it for 3 months,6 months, 1 year and then got frustu !. Nothing wrong, Natural !  [More on this below in Type-1]

If you are readers of startup blogs you may find this examples at many place like here    and here or at many other place.

And knowing both type of startup folks 1. hungry for fund and 2.passionate about what they are doing but not hungry for fund and some blog posts recent and old, here is interesting observations, summarizing without revealing much (unnecessary personal/professional) details.

These observation are not in recent month or not only with one startup, but since last 3-4 years time  and its average out.

To get fund from Indian VC/Angel

1.  You need to have **multiple** business model (not business plan) that you can convince to **multiple** VC (as per their need) 🙂
2.  Some indian vcs are  believing Ad is best model, some are almost against Ad ! [so before you meet and if you are dot com startup ensure what they like :)]
3.  Indian VC normally don’t fund without business model except you have past history of very successful exit.
4.  Even you have b-model, next question you will be asked for team.
5.  Even you have team, they will be asked for pilot version, free users test etc.
6.  Even you have alpha version, they will ask you for paid customer and revenue.
7.  When you have revenue, either they will think you are not scalable or will ask copy-cat and competition.
8.  Normally Indian VCs are not investing in very early or early stage startups, but they put money for growth and expansion. [This may be turned into one more  blog     post soon so keep watching this space]
9.  I don’t visited valley, but few good friends told, in valley one can get funding without Business model, and VCs are more focused on Team+Scale+Product/Idea even before its working. [Repeat : I frankly don’t know this point personally but heard from multiple trusted friends !]
10.  VC/Angel are surely able to know in couple of mail exchange or few minutes talk, Are you really passionate about what you are doing or Are you hungry for money ? they are just smart in this aspect.

Good side is Many times VC are approaching startups, and i know this is also the case with few startups.
Now the other side and some know-how for Enterpreneurs [use at your own risk ! But i have seen many startup’s founder using this.]

Type 1: Only goal is to raise money:

You don’t have team, you don’t have single  line of code written, You don’t have passion but as you have shoot couple of B-plan and met or have call with few VC and they might have told you above points and just to show them, you may have build the team and half backed product (for VC and not for the customer/End user or even for their own passion).

Type 2.A: Not hungry for money. Passionate about what they do. Enterpreneur approaching VC, with frankly telling they don’t have any B-model as of now, but what they are doing is something really cool.

Here this type of enterpreneur are actually not crazy for funding, what they are crazy is to get honest feedback, questions and suggestions. And they normally get what they want (not funding, because of Point 3 in above !)

Type 2.B : Not hungry for money. Passionate about what they do. VC approaching Enterpreneur.

So if you are startup and recently you might have got call/mail from reputed angel/VC telling you hi, let’s have call/meetup. They ask you to shoot b-plan and team summary etc [even most of the stuff they already knowing but kind of ice-breaking or want to know more etc?] and there are typical answers like we don’t have B-plan yet 🙂  [B-plan and not B-model !]

Then they might scale down to ok, we can work out on b-plan, but send us b-model. Normally for startups who attract VC are in a stage who may be knowing this answer. There are very few startups in Type 2.B, but either they are not looking for funding, or they are afraid to share details or the smart folks, who wanted to get ideas/suggestion from VC and if good luck, may turned into funding.

Without any conclusion, keeping this open ended and  You are feel free to comment/put your experience or other related things.

Note :
some points (very few) are  apply to m4mum.com and most of the points are derived from other startups founders. I have not taken any formal interview of any founders but hanging out at their office, very small meetup etc and sometimes helping them on certain aspects or sometime were in passive call when founders are dating VC,  i made these observations.

I am thinking to write, what startups are doing after funding ? how they use the funds and related topic, so if you are funded startup, tip us. If you don’t want your identity be publish, i will respect.

Bye Bye Polaris, Welcome to Mobile 4 Mumbai full time.

Hi

 

It was tough call, tough not to leave the job, but Tough to leave Polaris  !!! Working for more than 5 years in one company (and more to company its like working with family and friends !). However  I learn one thing “Live your Dream”.  And finally its time to do that,   to work on my idea, building the stuffs from scratch and impacting millions of people’s daily life.

At one side, i am feeling sad, as its 5 yr+ time, kind of comfort zone in polaris, many friends, daily hangout, smooth life, good steady monthly pay !And when i told my wish to leave polaris to few close friends, they were giving me Gali, You Foolish, Don’t do etc etc.

They are right, I am also right.  But finally with all your wish and good luck, i think its time for me to startup.

While writing this, i am really excited about the progress we have made in Mobile 4 Mumbai‘s new Stealth mode service., Top 4 telcos  in Mumbai are keen to work with us and in advance level talk with them to rolling out our new service in few months time. Frameworks for some really cool location+mobile service has been built-up, with load testing of  10L users, and performance, scalability are good enough.

The point is not about only telcos,  Infact when we launched Mobile 4 Mumbai’s in Last week of 2009,  and within 6 month in June-2010, Big Boys who are having two O in their name (Guess ! Guess !!!) were calling us and keen to work with us, or i work for them. [But i don’t want to leave Polaris for next job !!!] Now i predict it is right time to jump full time !

I am sure many things i have learn @ polaris will be useful, (Oh ! When  yesterday i was hanging out with investors, they told, its not about my Idea, They would love to make investment because of My Execution !!!… I am sure, If not in polaris, i may NOT have learn all of this).
Working in Phonologies (IIT-B incubated small startup) + Polaris + Vaman (now defunct) and working with some great  brain + great friends,  i can not forget, and i will miss you,  i will miss some night out in solving Armor Issues, Night out in making some servers up, Rolling out some new implementations and  Chai + Bhaji and other fun stuffs around office,  + great people @ Polaris.

 

So yes, finally writing this to say Good Bye and Good luck to all associates and management @ Polaris Software Lab Ltd.  And jumping to Start-up world !!!

 

Cheers and Have Fun,

Raxit Sheth

Help,Dont help !!!

Okies…  This is Life,Nind Nahi Aati to bollywood film ki story bana raha hu….. 🙂 🙂 Enjoy with your heart,mind and soul. Decide how can you handle the situation in best way !!!!

There are two friends  A and R.

Case 1 :

A is in some trouble,  R is friend and knowing A is in trouble. R is helping A constantly so that A can be out of his trouble.  A is knowing R is helping him.

Case 2:

At the same time, R is also in some different problem (or atleast A thinks R is in trouble !!!). A is trying to help (without knowledge of R).As problem of R is involved Third Party C, Without knowledge of  R, A is trying to do communicate with C. R and C  is again knowing each other, A is knowing the same.

 

Good Good, Help Karo, Friend ko batao mat.  If you donate with your left hand, right hand should not know !!!

Now if you are normal human being, you may think A as good character. A is helping. Help karo lekin Batao mat. True Friendship !!!!   But Kahani me Twist hain 🙂 🙂

Even A is helping R, help is not results in any fruitful stuff, even it is likely to make matter more compelx !!!

Finally….

Note that, intention of A is good, but finally it is making the stuff more complex for R and C.

What do you think ?  As per you  A is helping to R is Good ? (Am not asking good for friendship…but good for situation ?)

Should anyone help to other without informing ?

 

If you are R : Would you cut all the communication when you come to know A was helping, but things gone wrong for help attempt !

If you are A: What you would have done ?

 

 

Sochte Raho… If you don’t understand all this post,  Give extreme Stress to your brain and heart cell.  I am also trying the same to understand what i have written.

 

Have Fun, Wait for Feb 3.

 

Raxit