In the technical section, I demonstrate where the first and last name would show up in the response from Coinbase. If you still think it's unclear, let me know, as reporting is something I wish to improve critically.
I appreciate the response from the Bitcoin community and the semi-fix from Coinbase they wish to implement in the future (optional masking of names on coinbase). However, I do also hope that rate limiting is implemented in the future, as I still personally consider this insecure by design.
[1] : http://i.imgur.com/nauHivq.png
[2] : http://blog.shubh.am/full-disclosure-coinbase-security/#tech...
[3] : http://i.imgur.com/l84eOi6.png and http://i.imgur.com/SDlbtty.png
Assuming that this is still the easiest way to harvest email/name pairs for phishing, then it seems like the time it takes isn't really a factor in the outcome since it can be parallelized and is still easier than phishing alternatives. It seems like the real answer is just to have it return the same response no matter if there is an account or not.
The PoC does not at all demonstrate how the alleged bug could be used by phishers to their advantage.. it doesn't even show usage of the firstname or lastname! That makes it incoherent.