Data Breach

COMB breach: 3.2B email and password pairs leaked online

The Largest compilation of emails and passwords (COMB), more than 3.2 billion login credentials, has been leaked on a popular hacking forum.

More than 3.2 billion unique pairs of cleartext emails and passwords have been leaked on a popular hacking forum, the collection aggregates data from past leaks, such as Netflix, LinkedIn, Exploit.in, Bitcoin, and more.

This breach was dubbed “Compilation of Many Breaches” (COMB), the data is archived in an encrypted, password-protected container.

Source: CyberNews

The database includes a script named count_total.sh, which was also included in 2017’s Breach Compilation. COMB also includes the query.sh script for querying emails and the sorter.sh script for sorting the data.

Experts at CyberNews added the new COMB emails to their Personal Data Leak Checker.

This does not appear to be a new breach, but rather the largest compilation of multiple breaches. Much like 2017’s Breach Compilation, COMB’s data is organized by alphabetical order in a tree-like structure, and it contains the same scripts for querying emails and passwords.

At the time of this writing, it is not clear what previously leaked databases are included in the COMB breach.

“This current leaked database appears to build on 2017’s Breach Compilation. In that leak, intelligence analysts at 4iQ discovered a single file database with 1.4 billion email and password pairs, all in plaintext.” reads the post published by CyberNews. 

“At the time, this was considered the largest credential breach exposure, almost two times larger than the previous largest credential exposure from Exploit.in which had nearly 800 million records.”

The analysis of data included in the COMB breach revealed that “14% of exposed username/passwords pairs had not previously been decrypted by the community and are now available in clear text.”

Experts from the intelligence security firm 4iQ who discovered the Breach Compilation, verified the tested credential worked.

“The intelligence analysts state that they found the 41GB dump on December 5, 2017, with the latest data updated on November 29, 2017.” continues the post.

They also remarked that the leak was not just a list, but rather an “interactive database” that allowed for “fast (one second response) searches and new breach imports. Given the fact that people reuse passwords across their email, social media, e-commerce, banking and work accounts, hackers can automate account hijacking or account takeover.”

Experts warn of the impact to consumers and businesses of this new breach that may be unprecedented due to the bad habit of reusing login credentials.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, COMB)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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