4Chan data, emails and contact info leaked? Alleged hack leads to speculations

Controversial online imageboard 4chan was allegedly hacked early on Tuesday. Several social media users reported that attack on the website after it was down for thousands of users. The alleged hack sparked theories about the platform's source code, database, emails and even contact information being leaked. 4chan is yet to respond to these reports. Hindustan Times cannot verify the authenticity of these claims.

According to Downdetector data, 71% of reported issues were related to the website. 4chan has been at the center of several online controversies, including the leak of intimate celebrity photos.

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Reacting to the alleged hack, one social media user said: “4chan got hacked by the sharty, they restored /QA/, they leaked the jannies passwords, their IRC, the site is slowing down, this is MASSIVE.”

“4chan just got hacked hard. The person who hacked them claimed they dumped the entire database,” another one added on X, platform formerly known as Twitter. They also attached screenshots of what looked like a source code.

“A hacker claims to have dumped the entire database, exposing sensitive data. Screenshots show a dashboard with /v/ board stats and a phpMyAdmin interface listing database tables, confirming the breach's depth,” a third person tweeted.

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Who hacked 4chan?

There’s no definitive evidence pointing to a single individual or group responsible for hacking 4chan, as reports conflict and details remain unconfirmed. Recent speculation suggests a group tied to the Soyjak.party community, nicknamed ‘sharty’, may have exploited outdated PHP code and MySQL functions in 4chan’s backend, allegedly to restore a banned board (/QA/) and leak moderator emails.

Some posts on X claim this was vengeance for a 2021 board ban, but these are unverified. Earlier incidents, like a 2014 hack confirmed by 4chan’s founder Christopher Poole, involved an attacker targeting moderator credentials over a personal grudge, with no clear identity disclosed.