Web Hosting Talk data breach: 515K accounts exposed
Severity: high · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2025-12-17
In July 2016, the Web Hosting Talk forum suffered a data breach that was subsequently listed for sale. The breach of the vBulletin based forum exposed 515k user records including usernames, email addresses, IP addresses and salted MD5 password hashes. Exposed data: email addresses, ip addresses, passwords, usernames. The breach dates from Jul 1, 2016; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Dec 17, 2025.
What to do
- If you had a Web Hosting Talk account, change its password and the password of any other account that reused it.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication wherever it is offered.
- Check whether your addresses are in this breach at https://haveibeenpwned.com.
- Expect targeted phishing that quotes the leaked details; verify any unexpected contact out of band.
Sources
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