4chan ‘turned’ into 404chan – the controversial meme forum was hacked and now won’t open

The controversial and infamous forum 4chan, which spawned early internet meme culture, has been hacked. According to Downdetector, the first reports of a glitch in the resource appeared late Monday evening, and access problems are still ongoing, with attempts to follow direct links resulting in a timeout. Personal data of moderators and most users is believed to have leaked online.

Image source: unsplash.com

It appears that hackers managed to break into the shell of 4chan’s hosting server. They then used the phpmyadmin utility to access the forum’s database and apparently leaked the data of both moderators and most of the site’s registered users. Judging by the presence of numerous .edu and .gov email addresses in the leaked data, many forum members used their real data to register, putting their privacy at risk.

The hackers posted screenshots of the statistics panels, admin panel and database, accompanied by the caption “I fucking own 4chan”. Many users of social networks and Reddit assume that this hack could be the end of the most infamous forum on the Internet. There were reports of a complete leak of the source code of the site’s engine.

Image source: pexels.com

4chan has been around since October 1, 2003. The security holes exploited by the hackers appear to date back to that time, and have not been patched even after creator Christoper Poole handed over the forum to buyer Hiroyuki Nishimura. It could take months for 4chan to be restored and the vulnerabilities fixed.

4chan is considered the starting point for the popularization of the Anonymous meme, as most posts are signed “Anonymous” by default.