The 178 Gaming Database Leak Exposed 72 Chinese User Accounts

HEROIC analysts identified the 178 breach while cataloguing historical gaming site incidents from the December 2011 wave of Chinese platform attacks. The breach exposed 72 user records from 178.com, a Chinese gaming website, including usernames and plaintext passwords. While small in scale, this data has circulated alongside larger dumps from the same period and continues to appear in credential aggregation lists.

Why the 178 Breach Is Dangerous

Even 72 exposed accounts represent 72 real people whose credentials are now in the hands of anyone who obtained the dataset. Passwords were stored in plaintext, meaning attackers have direct, usable credentials without needing to crack anything. Gaming site credentials are frequentely reused on email services, social media, and financial platforms, making even a small breach a meaningful threat to the individuals affected.

What Was Exposed in the 178 Leak

• Usernames
• Plaintext passwords

Why This 178 Data Puts You at Risk

Credential stuffing attacks don't discriminate by breach size. Bots run every available email and password pair across hundreds of websites automatically. If any of the 72 users whose credentials were exposed in the 178 breach reused those passwords elsewhere, those accounts are vulnerable to takeover. Successful attacks give attackers access to email inboxes, social profiles, bank portals, and any connected service sharing those credentials.

How a Database Breach Works

A database breach occurs when an attacker gains unauthorized access to a website's backend and extracts the user data table. In the case of 178, the attackers exported usernames and plaintext passwords, which required no additonal cracking work to use. Older gaming sites from this era frequently stored passwords without hashing, leaving users fully exposed if the database was ever compromised.

Check If Your Data Was Exposed

HEROIC operates one of the world's largest breach databases, covering more than 400 billion leaked records. Use HEROIC's free breach scanner to check if your email address or credentials appeared in the 178 leak or thousands of other breaches in our database.