ViralNugget

We've been tracking a concerning trend of older breaches resurfacing in new combolists and credential stuffing attacks. Often these are smaller breaches that initially flew under the radar, but their plaintext passwords make them disproportionately dangerous years later. Our team discovered one such case with **ViralNugget**, a U.S.-based advertising platform. What really struck us wasn't the volume of records – just under **28,000** – but the fact that passwords were stored in plaintext. This significantly amplifies the risk for impacted users, as those passwords are now readily available for malicious actors to exploit across various online services.

ViralNugget's Plaintext Passwords: A Ticking Time Bomb

The **ViralNugget** breach, dating back to **August 2018**, exposed **27,782** user records containing both email addresses and, critically, passwords stored in plaintext. The breach itself appears to have been a database compromise, with the resulting data subsequently shared on a popular hacking forum. This incident highlights a critical security lapse: the failure to properly hash and salt passwords, a basic security measure that renders stolen credentials significantly less useful to attackers.

The breach caught our attention due to the presence of plaintext passwords, a rarity in modern breaches. While many breaches expose hashed passwords, which require significant computational resources to crack, plaintext passwords offer immediate access to user accounts. The age of the breach is also concerning; the longer a breach remains public, the greater the chance of the exposed credentials being used in credential stuffing attacks against other platforms.

This breach matters to enterprises now because even seemingly small breaches with plaintext passwords can have cascading effects. Users often reuse passwords across multiple services, meaning a compromised account on a relatively obscure platform like **ViralNugget** can lead to breaches of more critical accounts, including those used for business purposes. This underscores the importance of employee security awareness training and proactive credential monitoring.

Key point: Total records exposed: 27,782

Key point: Types of data included: Email addresses, plaintext passwords

Key point: Source structure: Database dump (likely)

Key point: Leak location: Popular hacking forum

Key point: Date of leak: August 26, 2018

External Context & Supporting Evidence

While the **ViralNugget** breach itself received limited media attention at the time, the broader issue of plaintext password storage has been widely discussed in cybersecurity circles. Security researcher Troy Hunt, creator of Have I Been Pwned, has frequently highlighted the dangers of this practice. As Hunt noted in a 2012 blog post, "Storing passwords in plain text is just about the worst thing you can possibly do." The continued discovery of plaintext passwords in breaches years later underscores the persistence of this security vulnerability.

Combolists containing older breaches like this one are frequently traded on Telegram channels and dark web marketplaces. These lists are often used in automated credential stuffing attacks, where attackers attempt to log into various online services using the compromised credentials. The success rate of these attacks is significantly higher when the passwords are in plaintext.

Email · Address · Plaintext · Password