Canonical probe reveals user account details of 2 million stolen, passwords safe.
Ubuntu Forums’ database was recently discovered hacked after Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, was alerted that someone claimed to have a copy of the Forums database. An investigation revealed that a security breach had exposed usernames, email, and IP addresses for 2 million users. Passwords, however, were not accessed.
Canonical explained in a blog: "No active passwords were accessed; the passwords stored in this table were random strings as the Ubuntu Forums rely on Ubuntu Single Sign On for logins. The attacker did download these random strings (which were hashed and salted)."
The company further explained that the breach was due to a SQL injection vulnerability in the platform which powers the forum and which had not been patched.
“The attacker had the ability to inject certain formatted SQL to the Forums database on the Forums database servers…. This gave them the ability to read from any table, but we believe they only ever read from the ‘user’ table,” says Canonical.
The website was shut down as a precautionary measure and the server wiped clean and rebuilt.
Read more details here.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like
Guarding the Cloud: Top 5 Cloud Security Hacks and How You Can Avoid Them
April 4, 2024Cybersecurity Strategies for Small and Med Sized Businesses
April 11, 2024Defending Against Today's Threat Landscape with MDR
April 18, 2024Securing Code in the Age of AI
April 24, 2024
Black Hat USA - August 3-8 - Learn More
August 3, 2024Cybersecurity's Hottest New Technologies: What You Need To Know
March 21, 2024Black Hat Asia - April 16-19 - Learn More
April 16, 2024