this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023

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What's to prevent someone from hijacking my username? (self.fediverse)

submitted 1 year ago by YourHuckleberry to c/fediverse

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Since usernames are only unique to the instance it's created on, what's to stop someone from creating a copycat username in order to impersonate another user?

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[–] AeroBlue 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I mean depending on how you look at it. Usernames are really your name + instance, and that is unique. To know you are actually talking to the right person you just have to make sure that matches up

[–] nitefox 1 points 1 year ago

The username is structured as username@instanceurl so they will know it's you based on the instance url