Notes

Hackers Steal Millions Of Minecraft Passwords

Hackers are able to steal millions of Minecraft passwords



29 April 2016



Hackers have gained access to login data for more than seven million Minecraft users on the site Lifeboat.



Lifeboat members can run servers to build custom maps for Minecraft's smartphone version.



There is evidence to suggest that the stolen information, including passwords and email addresses, is being offered on sites that trade in hacked data.



Analysis shows that passwords were not secure enough so that attackers could easily access them.



Minimise damage



Troy Hunt, an independent security expert, received details about the breach. He claimed to have obtained the list from a person who deals with stolen credentials. Several people had told him the data was circulating on dark web sites.



Hunt claimed that the data was stolen in 2016 but that the breach is recently being discovered.



He stated that passwords for Lifeboat accounts had been hashed however the algorithm employed offered very little security.



Hashing is a technique that is used to scramble passwords so they cannot be read easily in the event that the password is lost.



Often, he said, it is the case that a Google search for a password that has been hashed would immediately return the exact plain text value. He suggested that well-known cracking tools could be able to automate this process and accelerate the process.



"A large portion of these passwords could be converted to plain text in a short period of time," he said in a blogpost about the breach.



He said that this can cause other security issues due to the fact that many people reuse passwords and attackers can figure out which password is being used to compromise accounts on other websites.



Motherboard was provided with a statement from Lifeboat which stated that it had taken steps to minimize the damage.



"When this happened in January, we decided that the best option for our user was to quietly force a reset password without telling hackers they had limited action time," it said to the news site, adding that it now uses stronger hashing algorithms.
Minecraft servers


It stated: "We have not received any reports of anyone being hurt from this."



Mr Hunt was unhappy with the company for "quietly" forcing the password reset saying the policy rendered him "speechless".



He stated that Lifeboat could have been more proactive in advising users to allow them to quickly change passwords if they used on other sites.



"The first thing that should be on the mind of every company after an incident like this is, 'How do we minimize the damage to our users?" He added.



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