4chan Down After Being Hacked by Rivals in ‘Extensive Own’

4chan, the website that serves as a source of much of the internet’s meme culture, has been largely inaccessible since Monday night due to a significant hack, with the extent of the data breach uncertain.

Ars Technica reports that 4chan, the online imageboard notorious for its uncensored content, anonymity, and memes that take over social media, has been mostly unreachable since Monday evening following what security researchers are calling a “pretty comprehensive own.” The site appears to have fallen victim to a hack that may have compromised its databases, source code, and user information.

Reports of the outage began surfacing Monday evening, according to data from DownDetector, a website that tracks online service disruptions. The site has remained largely inaccessible since then, with rival site “Soyjak Party” claiming responsibility for the attack. While the credibility of these claims remains uncertain, screenshots shared on the Soyjak Party forum appear to show 4chan’s PHP admin interface and suggest extensive access to the site’s databases of posts and users.

Security researcher Kevin Beaumont described the incident as “a pretty comprehensive own” that likely involved “SQL databases, source, and shell access.” Some experts have pointed to the presence of outdated and vulnerable PHP functions in the leaked screenshots as a possible indication that 4chan was running an unpatched version of the software, which could have been exploited to gain unauthorized access.

The full extent of the data breach remains unclear at this time, with unsubstantiated claims circulating on social media about the possible leak of user data for moderators and administrators, including real names, IP addresses, and email addresses. However, without further information about the scope of the hack, it is too early to determine the long-term implications for the site and its users.

Read more at Ars Technica here.