Breach date: 2018-05-01. Added to this index: 2018-06-07. Accounts affected: about 276K. Domain: linuxforums.org.
What happened
In May 2018, the Linux Forums website suffered a data breach which resulted in the disclosure of 276k unique email addresses. Running on an old version of vBulletin, the breach also disclosed usernames, IP addresses and salted MD5 password hashes. Linux Forums did not respond to multiple attempts to contact them about the breach.
Breach data sourced from Have I Been Pwned, used under CC BY 4.0. Additional breach metadata provided by XposedOrNot. DataExposed is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.
What was exposed
Email addresses: The email address you used to register or log in. It is the most common field in breaches because it doubles as your username on most sites.
IP addresses: The network addresses your devices used when you signed up, logged in or posted, recorded by almost every website in its access logs.
Passwords: The secret you use to sign in, stored by the breached service either in plain text, in a scrambled form called a hash, or encrypted. How it was stored decides how quickly it can be recovered.
Usernames: The handle or login name you chose for an account, which may be public on forums, games and social platforms or used privately to sign in.
What to do now
Check whether your own address is in this dataset with the free email breach check.
Change the password on this service and every other site where you used the same password.
Turn on two-factor authentication on your email account first, because it is the reset path for everything else.
Treat calls and messages that quote real details about you as hostile until you verify them another way.
Frequently asked questions
What data was leaked in the Linux Forums breach?
The Linux Forums breach exposed Email addresses, IP addresses, Passwords, Usernames. About 276K accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the Linux Forums breach?
Run the free email breach check with the address you used on that service. It will tell you whether your address appears in this dataset.
What should I do about the Linux Forums breach?
Change the password on that account and everywhere you reused it, then turn on two-factor authentication. Passwords from this breach are traded and tried automatically against other sites.