Gibbs gets bitten by Twitter bug

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was one of many Twitter users whose accounts were infected Tuesday with a virus spreading around the popular microblogging site.

Here are some tweets that came through Gibbs’s feed:

PressSec RT @doog_: http://t.co/@”onmouseover=”document.getElementById(‘status’).value=’RT doog_’;$(‘.status-update-form’).submit();”class=”modal …

PressSec RT @UchihaBlood: @anafree I really think something is seriously wrong with twitters servers they are running scripts directly frm the st …

The social media site Mashable reported that the bug was caused by a security flaw on Twitter.com. Users are unknowingly being directed to third-party websites simply by scrolling their mouse cursors over offending links.

Twitter reported later Tuesday morning the problem has been fixed.

Gibbs apologized for any bugged tweets, writing: “My Twitter went haywire – absolutely no clue why it sent that message or even what it is…paging the tech guys…”

Users were advised to use Twitter through third-party clients, such as TweetDeck and HootSuite, instead of on Twitter.com.

Rep. Rob Wittman’s (R-Va.) account was also attacked:

RobWittman http://a.no/@”onmouseover=”;$(‘textarea:first’).val(this.innerHTML);$(‘.status-update-form’).submit();”class=”modal-overlay”/

— This post was updated at 10:27 a.m.