Search Your Email: The ca 22.3 Combolist Exposed 18,766 Accounts

HEROIC Analysts Uncover the ca 22.3 Combolist

HEROIC's dark web monitoring team identified a combolist known as "ca 22.3" that was uploaded to a Telegram channel on April 24, 2023. The file contains 18,766 records pairing email addresses with plaintext passwords and the URLs of the accounts those credentials unlock. It is a smaller leak compared to the billion-record dumps that make headlines, but every one of those 18,766 records represents a real account that could be broken into today.

Why This Is Dangerous

Because the passwords in this combolist are stored in plaintext, anyone who downloads the file can read them instantly, no cracking or decryption required. Paired with the URL for each account, an attacker has everything needed to log straight into a victim's email or any other service tied to that address. If a password from this leak was reused anywhere else, the risk extends well beyond the original 18,766 accounts.

What Was Exposed

• Email addresses
• Plaintext passwords
• URLs linking each credential pair to the account they unlock

Why This Matters

Combolists like ca 22.3 are the raw fuel for credential stuffing attacks, where automated tools try each email and password pair against hundreds of other websites. Anyone who reused a password from this leak elsewhere is at risk of account takeover, and from there attackers can move into identity theft or financial fraud using whatever personal or payment details they find inside the compromised accounts.

How Combolists Work

A combolist is a compiled text file of "combo" entries, an email or username paired with a password, usually gathered by merging older breach data into one list. Criminals trade these files on Telegram and dark web forums because they save time: instead of hunting for credentials one by one, a buyer gets thousands of ready-to-use login pairs, sorted by the site the URL points to, in a single download.

Check If You Are Affected

You don't need to guess whether you're exposed. HEROIC's free breach scanner checks your email address against a database of more than 400 billion leaked records, including combolists like ca 22.3, so you can find out in seconds whether your credentials are out there and change your password before someone else uses it.