I was slightly sympathetic to them right up until smeagle posted RKearney's email. While not noticing an incredibly obvious security hole is serious, it's somewhat understandable in the context of a site that unintentionally goes public before it's ready. What's far, far worse is the mindset in which someone who points out a security hole is the problem, and should be personally attacked.
They should have thanked him, notified their users, done a thorough review of their own security, and warned new signups to only use IAM keys. Instead they got defensive, made excuses, and attacked the messenger.
> it's somewhat understandable in the context of a site that unintentionally goes public before it's ready
Sorry, but no. There is absolutely no good reason while creating an user controller - even when writing the very first lines - to not check against current user on sensible actions.
Actually, I may argue that's the very first thing you do once the controller skeleton is set up.
They should have thanked him, notified their users, done a thorough review of their own security, and warned new signups to only use IAM keys. Instead they got defensive, made excuses, and attacked the messenger.