Italian HORECA Supplier Metaltecnica Leaked 2,224 MD5 Password Hashes

HEROIC analysts identified a dataset from Metaltecnica, a now-defunct Italian manufacturer of professional furniture and refrigeration equipment for the hospitality (HORECA) sector, circulating on a hacking forum. The dataset, dated August 26, 2018, contains 2,224 records, each pairing an email address with an MD5 password hash.

Why This Is Dangerous

MD5 is an outdated hashing algorithm that modern computing power can crack quickly using freely available tools. A password hash that once looked secure in 2018 offers little real protection today, meaning attackers can convert most of these hashes back into working plaintext passwords with minimal effort.

What Was Exposed in the Metaltecnica Breach

• Email addresses
• MD5 password hashes

Why This Matters for Metaltecnica's Customers

Once a weak hash like MD5 is cracked, the resulting password is only useful to an attacker if it was reused elsewhere. Anyone who shopped with Metaltecnica and reused that same password on email, banking, or other shopping accounts faces a real risk of credential stuffing, account takeover, and identity theft, even years after the original leak.

How This Database Breach Happened

This incident is classified as a database and combolist leak, meaning attackers obtained a direct dump of Metaltecnica's user authentication data, likely from its e-commerce or customer management system, and compiled it into a combined list of emails and hashes for distribution. Once a dump like this reaches a hacking forum, it tends to resurface repeatedly, getting merged into larger combolists used across future credential stuffing campaigns.

Check If You Are Affected

To see if your email address or password appears in this leak or any other, run a free scan with HEROIC's breach checker, which searches a database of more than 400 billion leaked records.