Controversial online imageboard 4chan was allegedly hacked early Tuesday, sparking widespread speculation about a major data breach. According to numerous users on X, the alleged cyberattack may have compromised the platform’s source code, database, admin credentials, and user contact information. The website experienced an outage, and as of now, 4chan has not issued an official statement. What is 4chan? 4chan is an anonymous imageboard website launched in 2003 by Christopher Poole. It's known for its free-for-all culture, allowing users to post text and images without registering an account. This anonymity has led to a mix of creativity, chaos, and controversy, giving birth to viral memes and trends, but also attracting trolls, extremists, and cybercriminals. Downdetector data showed that 71% of reported problems were linked to the website itself, indicating a large-scale disruption. One user on X claimed, “4chan got hacked by the sharty, they restored /QA/, they leaked the jannies’ passwords, their IRC, the site is slowing down — this is MASSIVE.” 🚨Major news: 4chan reportedly faced a massive hack on April 15, 2025. 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.… pic.twitter.com/OfWK2eawQE — Torrents (@torrents) April 15, 2025 Another user alleged, “My theory on 4chan's hack is that he found the origin IP of the root server through Cloudflare somehow, then used a public exploit. They're running FreeBSD 10.1, which reached end-of-life in 2016. I don't think anyone has updated it since moot left." My theory on 4chan's hack is that he found the origin IP of the root server through Cloudflare somehow, then used a public exploit. They're running FreeBSD 10.1, which reached end-of-life in 2016. I don't think anyone has updated it since moot left. pic.twitter.com/0jUHGpLju3 — Josh (@XJosh) April 15, 2025 A third post added more fuel to the fire, stating, "4chan likely got hacked due to running an outdated PHP version with known vulnerabilities and using deprecated functions to interact with their MySQL database. Basic web security principle: keep your software and code up-to-date to avoid exploits." So 4chan very likely got hacked because they were running on an extremely out of date version of PHP that has a lot of vulnerabilities and exploits and are using deprecated function to interact with there MySQL database. Web security 101: Keep your code and software up to date. pic.twitter.com/JFDOsbr5rt — Yushe (@_yushe) April 15, 2025 The platform, known for its anonymity and history of hosting controversial content, has previously been involved in major online incidents, including leaks of sensitive celebrity data. The latest alleged breach has once again brought 4chan under scrutiny, with users anxiously awaiting an official response.
