The anonymous image board 4chan has survived years of controversy. It weathered user and advertiser boycotts as well as damning accusations that it incubated hate speech that may have fueled mass shootings. Users have convened on 4chan to plan hacks like DDoS attacks, and conspiracy theories that festered on 4chan even reportedly inspired the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol. On Monday night and Tuesday, though, the platform faced its latest test after a series of outages led to speculation that the site had been hacked.
On Tuesday, the notorious internet forum 4chan was hacked, causing the site to be intermittently down for hours. Users on social media reported the outage, and messages on a rival message board celebrated the hack. One person claimed that the hacker responsible had been inside 4chan’s system for over a year1.
Screenshots showing 4chan’s back end, source code, and user banning templates circulated online. The leaked data included a list of alleged 4chan moderators and “janitors,” who have fewer privileges than moderators but can delete posts and threads1. This cyberattack could potentially expose the people running these forums, which are central to alt-right movements1.
Emiliano De Cristofaro, a computer science and engineering professor at UC Riverside, who has researched the impact of 4chan on the web, says the ramifications could be large if the hack is confirmed.
“It seems true that 4chan hasn’t been properly maintained and patched for years, which might indicate that a hack would have definitely been a possibility,” De Cristofaro says. “There might be some ‘high profile’ users exposed as moderators—traditionally, 4chan users hate them, so they might be targeted. It might be hard or at least painfully slow and costly for 4chan to recover from this, so we might really see the end of 4chan as we know it.”
TechCrunch reached out to several leaked email addresses and spoke to a 4chan janitor who confirmed the authenticity of the leaked data. The janitor expressed concern over the situation, noting that while 4chan has had leaks in the past, this incident is of greater magnitude. They also mentioned that the hacker obtained personal information of 4chan Pass subscribers, who pay to bypass post counters and access a VIP board 1.
4chan did not respond to requests for comment. The forum is known for its anonymous nature and often vile content, but it has also popularised memes like Pepe the Frog and rage comics. However, its political boards have been linked to alt-right rhetoric and radicalisation with connections to incidents of right-wing terrorism 1.