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YouTube Bug Could Have Exposed Emails Of 2.7 Billion Users

Andisearch Writeup

A security researcher known as Brutecat discovered a vulnerability that could expose the email addresses of YouTube's 2.7 billion users by exploiting two separate Google services[1][2]. The attack chain involved extracting Google Account identifiers (GaiaIDs) from YouTube's block feature, then using Google's Pixel Recorder app to convert these IDs into email addresses[^1].

To prevent notification emails from alerting victims, Brutecat created recordings with 2.5 million character titles that broke the email notification system[1]. The exploit worked by intercepting server requests when clicking the three-dot menu in YouTube live chats, revealing users' GaiaIDs without actually blocking them[2].

Brutecat reported the vulnerability to Google on September 15, 2024[1]. Google initially awarded $3,133, then increased the bounty to $10,633 after their product team reviewed the severity[1]. According to Google spokesperson Kimberly Samra, there was no evidence the vulnerability had been exploited by attackers[^2].

Google patched both parts of the exploit on February 9, 2025, approximately 147 days after the initial disclosure[^1].

[1]: [Brutecat - Leaking the email of any YouTube user for $10,000](https://brutecat.com/articles/leaking-youtube-emails) [2]: Forbes - YouTube Bug Could Have Exposed Emails Of 2.7 Billion Users

10 comments

  • Really glad I do not have a google account and avoid all of their services. 🙂

    • Google even in this way logs your activity, because half of the internet, apps and services, apart of YT, use Google APIs, like google-taskmanager, googleanalytics, doubleclick.net and others, not only the Google services. Google permiys to manage and delete all this data, naturally it don't say it and only few user know it, in the Google Dashboard. but only if you have an account. It's a mess, but Google (Alphabet INC) is everywhere, you can't avoid it completly, even avoiding its services, except using exclusively i2p or other descentralized apps and services. Google has had too many years a complete freedom to dominate the internet and ending its "don't be evil".

10 comments