4chan, the 'internet’s litter box,' appears to have been pillaged by rival forum
(2025/04/15)
- Reference: 1744743397
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/15/4chan_breached/
- Source link:
Thousands of 4chan users reported outages Monday night amid rumors on social media that the edgy anonymous imageboard had been ransacked by an intruder, with someone on a rival forum claiming to have leaked its source code, moderator identities, and users' IP addresses.
If those claims are legit, it's a big deal with potential real-world risks. 4chan is known for its extremist, controversial content — everything from discussions about science and video games to fringe political conspiracies and trolling to leaked nudes, and offensive, violent words and images.
As of this writing, 4chan was back online but loading slowly.
[1]
The outages, according to Downdetector, [2]began around 1900 EST on April 14, with a peak of more than 1,000 user complaints. The last post before 4chan went down was a [3]Jack Black "Chicken Jockey" meme from the Minecraft movie.
[4]
[5]
After [6]posting "4chan, the internet's litter box, got hacked" on BlueSky, Kevin Beaumont, director of emerging threats at Arcadia Group, said he suspected the site "will be down for a while, looks like a pretty comprehensive [compromise] including SQL databases, source and shell access."
Reports from social media and forum posts suggest 4chan was operating on an outdated version of PHP, the open-source scripting language used for web development. While The Register hasn't verified the claims, it's alleged 4chan was running a nearly decade-old [7]buggy version of PHP and used a deprecated function to interact with its MySQL database.
[8]New York Times source code leaks online via 4chan
[9]Air National Guardsman gets 15 years after splashing classified docs on Discord
[10]Where it Hertz: Customer data driven off in Cleo attacks
[11]Hacktivism resurges – but don't be fooled, it's often state-backed goons in masks
A 4chan splinter site called soyjack party, aka sharty, claimed to be behind the security breach, and posted what they alleged was [12]a ton of internal data on their rival website, including source code and info on moderators and lower-level mods called janitors. The leak reportedly included [.]edu and [.]gov email addresses.
"Their board on 4chan /qa/ was banned 4 years ago and so they've been biding their time, I guess. As part of the hack they reinstated their banned board. Lol," [13]Xeeted journalist Alex Goldman, referring to 4chan's Q&A message board.
[14]
The hack-and-leak has spurred further speculation that 4chan may be a federal law enforcement honeypot, and now that some of the moderators have reportedly been doxxed, it could put them at personal risk.
4chan did not immediately respond to The Register 's questions about the alleged compromised. We will update this story if and when we hear back. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z_7XAzQbt4g4drLco6_nlQAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://downdetector.com/status/4chan/
[3] https://x.com/KommiAttrition/status/1912104200231661568
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_7XAzQbt4g4drLco6_nlQAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[6] https://bsky.app/profile/GossiTheDog.cyberplace.social.ap.brid.gy/post/3lmtqzu6lykn2
[7] https://x.com/_yushe/status/1912025058953867353
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/07/4chan_nyt_code/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/13/teixeira_prison_discord/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/15/hertz_cleo_customer_data/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/13/hacktivism_is_having_a_resurgence/
[12] https://x.com/revenge_of_zin/status/1912022074115408064
[13] https://x.com/AGoldmund/status/1912094693669609788
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_7XAzQbt4g4drLco6_nlQAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
If those claims are legit, it's a big deal with potential real-world risks. 4chan is known for its extremist, controversial content — everything from discussions about science and video games to fringe political conspiracies and trolling to leaked nudes, and offensive, violent words and images.
As of this writing, 4chan was back online but loading slowly.
[1]
The outages, according to Downdetector, [2]began around 1900 EST on April 14, with a peak of more than 1,000 user complaints. The last post before 4chan went down was a [3]Jack Black "Chicken Jockey" meme from the Minecraft movie.
[4]
[5]
After [6]posting "4chan, the internet's litter box, got hacked" on BlueSky, Kevin Beaumont, director of emerging threats at Arcadia Group, said he suspected the site "will be down for a while, looks like a pretty comprehensive [compromise] including SQL databases, source and shell access."
Reports from social media and forum posts suggest 4chan was operating on an outdated version of PHP, the open-source scripting language used for web development. While The Register hasn't verified the claims, it's alleged 4chan was running a nearly decade-old [7]buggy version of PHP and used a deprecated function to interact with its MySQL database.
[8]New York Times source code leaks online via 4chan
[9]Air National Guardsman gets 15 years after splashing classified docs on Discord
[10]Where it Hertz: Customer data driven off in Cleo attacks
[11]Hacktivism resurges – but don't be fooled, it's often state-backed goons in masks
A 4chan splinter site called soyjack party, aka sharty, claimed to be behind the security breach, and posted what they alleged was [12]a ton of internal data on their rival website, including source code and info on moderators and lower-level mods called janitors. The leak reportedly included [.]edu and [.]gov email addresses.
"Their board on 4chan /qa/ was banned 4 years ago and so they've been biding their time, I guess. As part of the hack they reinstated their banned board. Lol," [13]Xeeted journalist Alex Goldman, referring to 4chan's Q&A message board.
[14]
The hack-and-leak has spurred further speculation that 4chan may be a federal law enforcement honeypot, and now that some of the moderators have reportedly been doxxed, it could put them at personal risk.
4chan did not immediately respond to The Register 's questions about the alleged compromised. We will update this story if and when we hear back. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z_7XAzQbt4g4drLco6_nlQAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://downdetector.com/status/4chan/
[3] https://x.com/KommiAttrition/status/1912104200231661568
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_7XAzQbt4g4drLco6_nlQAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z_7XAzQbt4g4drLco6_nlQAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://bsky.app/profile/GossiTheDog.cyberplace.social.ap.brid.gy/post/3lmtqzu6lykn2
[7] https://x.com/_yushe/status/1912025058953867353
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/07/4chan_nyt_code/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/13/teixeira_prison_discord/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/15/hertz_cleo_customer_data/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/13/hacktivism_is_having_a_resurgence/
[12] https://x.com/revenge_of_zin/status/1912022074115408064
[13] https://x.com/AGoldmund/status/1912094693669609788
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_7XAzQbt4g4drLco6_nlQAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Unfair to litter boxes
Gene Cash
"Specify kind of kitty..."
I would never let my cat go anywhere near 4chan
Chewi
Not even on Caturday?
Re: I would never let my cat go anywhere near 4chan
Throatwarbler Mangrove
Especially not on Caturday.
1 for sorrow
Anonymous Coward
1chan for sorrow, 2chan for joy, 3chan for a girl, 4chan for an incel.
sh*t
stiine
Where am I going to find complete image collections of locomotives and military jets now?
Oh dear.
Anonymous Coward
Not laughing, honest.
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of incel fuckwits.
Wonder if we'll discover Chodejunky's real identity...
Re: Oh dear.
Paul Crawford
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f8BBTbWSzk
Elmo the Antichrist
sarusa
Gee, apparently Elmo posts like a 13yo edgelord and thinks Hitler did nothing wrong. What a shock!
Pardon the reddit link, the armpit of the internet, but this is where it's at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LeaksAndRumors/comments/1jzqr8c/elon_musks_alleged_unverified_4chan_account/
PHP is not…
Androgynous Cupboard
… “ the open-source scripting language used for web development”, unless you append “by people with no sense of shame”. Which does cover 4chan, to be fair.
PHP
fg_swe
The litterbox language ?
I hope someone uses those IP addresses
DS999
To correlate to actual names of people and makes it public. Shouldn't be that hard to do since at least for broadband IP addresses are relatively fixed for long periods of time.
They loved doxxing people for years, seeing them doxxed would be the ultimate karma! And if some of them end up losing their jobs over it in an economy spiraling into recession and end up homeless, all the better!
4chan still exists?
jake
Who knew!
Unfair to litter boxes
I don't know about you, but I scoop my cat's litter box daily and discard the contents rather than spreading them around and displaying them proudly. Also, I would never let my cat go anywhere near 4chan. He'd probably wind up as the subject of kitty porn.