One Forum. 4,755 Accounts. The Hack Discussion Breach Resurfaced.

HEROIC analysts identified a database leak tied to Hack Discussion (hackdiscussion.com), a hacking-focused online forum. The breach is dated February 5, 2016, and exposed 4,755 accounts, including email addresses, usernames, passwords, and the hash type used to store them, built on the MyBB forum platform.

Why a Hacking Forum Breach Is Especially Risky

There's a particular irony to a breach hitting a forum built around hacking discussion, but the risk to its members is the same as any other site: usernames, emails, and passwords tied to real people. Members of niche technical communities often reuse the same handle and password across multiple sites, which makes a leak like this a useful starting point for attackers trying to link an identity across several platforms.

What Was Exposed on Hack Discussion

• Email addresses
• Usernames
• Passwords (MyBB hash format)
• Hash type metadata

Why This Matters Nearly a Decade Later

A 2016 password hash can still be cracked with modern computing power, especially if it was never a strong password to begin with. Anyone who reused their Hack Discussion username and password combination on another site remains exposed to credential stuffing, where attackers automatically test known username and password pairs across many services until one works. Paired with an email address, this data is also enough groundwork for a targeted phishing attempt.

How MyBB Database Breaches Typically Happen

This leak is recorded as a database breach originating from MyBB, a widely used open source forum platform. Forums running MyBB and similar software have historically been targeted through vulnerabilities in outdated plugins or unpatched versions of the software itself, allowing attackers to pull the entire user table, including hashed passwords, directly from the database. Once the hashes are extracted, they can be cracked offline at the attacker's own pace.

Check If You Are Affected

If you've ever registered on a hacking or tech forum with an email and password you've reused elsewhere, it's worth checking your exposure. HEROIC's free breach scanner searches more than 400 billion leaked records, including forum breaches like this one, so you can see what's out there and update any passwords still in use.