MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Meta has paused the sharing of conversations within its Muse AI assistant after cybersecurity experts discovered that thousands of shared chat links could be retrieved via public DNS records. These links potentially revealed sensitive personal and corporate data. Meta informed Ars Technica on Tuesday, October 20, that it had temporarily disabled this feature during an ongoing review of the findings. Additionally, the company indicated it is contemplating modifications to prevent shared links from being easily found.
Security firm Claroc identified over 6,800 shared Muse links through passive DNS databases, which log domain name queries and enable web addresses to be searched. This number reflects the discovered link addresses, not necessarily the number of sensitive conversations involved. Claroc published its findings on October 18, stating it first reported the vulnerability to Meta’s bug bounty program on October 8, providing steps to reproduce the issue along with sample shares.
By opening several hundred shared conversations, researchers found that nearly all live links could be accessed without a Meta account. Some of these contained sensitive data, such as an internal revenue review from a marketing firm and a small-business loan application. Others included a bank fraud alert with transaction details and partial account information. Researchers also uncovered confidential interview notes from executive searches and a workplace vacation calendar listing dozens of employees. Many other shared chats involved routine or non-sensitive material.
Link structure enabled chat discoverability
The vulnerability originated from how Muse generated its share links. Each URL combined the conversation’s title with a randomly created identifier embedded within the hostname. While the identifier was sufficiently long to prevent guessing, visiting the link triggered a DNS lookup that passive DNS services could record and index. Consequently, others could locate the addresses without direct access and view the chats without needing to sign in.
Although Muse instructed search engines and AI crawlers not to index its shared pages, this did not prevent access via DNS records. The security website urlscan.io stored over 75 saved scans of Muse share pages. Claroc clarified it found no evidence of misuse, and did not notify affected users nor could it determine if others had accessed the links. Meta’s official statement did not specify whether impacted users would be notified of the issue.
Link sharing functionality is now turned off following review
On October 20, Claroc re-examined 40 shares that previously loaded without requiring a Meta account. None of these links successfully loaded, and the servers returned errors. Nevertheless, conversation titles are still stored in passive DNS histories. Meta launched Muse in the United States on September 8 for users aged 18 and older. The assistant connects to users’ email, calendar, payment, and health applications. In April, Meta announced its Muse Spark model developed within its superintelligence laboratory.
This incident underscores increasing worries surrounding data privacy in AI tools, especially when sharing confidential conversations. Similar issues arose in 2025 when shared ChatGPT conversations appeared in Google search results. Additionally, Meta has faced legal challenges related to user safety, including an order to pay $567 million after a New Mexico court ruling in August. The company has not provided a timeline for when Muse chat sharing will resume.