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The popular pirate e-book site Z-Library, or rather its phishing clone Z-lib, created at the end of 2022, recently experienced a data leak of almost 10 million users.
On June 27, 2024, the Cybernews research team discovered an open database with information from 9,761,948 users. This data belonged to the attackers who managed the fake version of the Z-Library.
Under the guise of a real site, fraudsters have been collecting personal information, passwords, addresses of cryptocurrency wallets and payment data of users for a long time. However, to make matters worse, the attackers accidentally exposed all of this data. The researchers confirmed the authenticity of this information.
The Z-lib website, created shortly after the original Z-Library domains were seized by US authorities in November 2022, is a phishing resource that collects credentials and requests payments. In their Telegram channel, the attackers even pretended to be the legitimate owners of Z-Library and claimed that their site was the only official one.
Phishing site Z-lib was actively used: one of its domains had 10.7 million visitors per month, and the other — 7.6 million. Meanwhile, attempts to block and withdraw the domains of the original Z-Library continue to this day, which contributes to the growing popularity of fake sites.
"This is a leak on an unprecedented scale," the researchers told Cybernews. According to them, the number of compromised accounts on the fake Z-lib site exceeds the number of users of the original site before it was closed. It is noteworthy that up to this point, the record among leaks in the field of digital piracy belonged to The Pirate Bay site, when in 2007 hackers disclosed the data of 1.5 million of its users.
In turn, the Z-lib leak, according to researchers, occurred due to the fact that directory listing was enabled on the attackers web server, which allowed any user to see a list of all files on the server. Among the files was the same database with personal information of millions of users, created on June 20, 2024.
The passwords were encrypted using the bcrypt algorithm, which makes them harder to crack, but does not make them impossible. The researchers also confirmed the existence of compromised cryptocurrency wallets on the Bitcoin and Monero blockchains. Users who registered on the fake site regularly received spam with malicious links that posed a serious threat to security and privacy.
Since the leak affects almost 10 million people, its consequences can be very serious. Affected users are encouraged to take their own measures to protect their data and assets. These measures include changing passwords, blocking malicious email addresses, stopping the use of compromised cryptocurrency wallets, and switching to more secure email services.
• Source: https://cybernews.com/security/zlibrary-copycat-exposes-millions-digital-pirates/
On June 27, 2024, the Cybernews research team discovered an open database with information from 9,761,948 users. This data belonged to the attackers who managed the fake version of the Z-Library.
Under the guise of a real site, fraudsters have been collecting personal information, passwords, addresses of cryptocurrency wallets and payment data of users for a long time. However, to make matters worse, the attackers accidentally exposed all of this data. The researchers confirmed the authenticity of this information.
The Z-lib website, created shortly after the original Z-Library domains were seized by US authorities in November 2022, is a phishing resource that collects credentials and requests payments. In their Telegram channel, the attackers even pretended to be the legitimate owners of Z-Library and claimed that their site was the only official one.
Phishing site Z-lib was actively used: one of its domains had 10.7 million visitors per month, and the other — 7.6 million. Meanwhile, attempts to block and withdraw the domains of the original Z-Library continue to this day, which contributes to the growing popularity of fake sites.
"This is a leak on an unprecedented scale," the researchers told Cybernews. According to them, the number of compromised accounts on the fake Z-lib site exceeds the number of users of the original site before it was closed. It is noteworthy that up to this point, the record among leaks in the field of digital piracy belonged to The Pirate Bay site, when in 2007 hackers disclosed the data of 1.5 million of its users.
In turn, the Z-lib leak, according to researchers, occurred due to the fact that directory listing was enabled on the attackers web server, which allowed any user to see a list of all files on the server. Among the files was the same database with personal information of millions of users, created on June 20, 2024.
The passwords were encrypted using the bcrypt algorithm, which makes them harder to crack, but does not make them impossible. The researchers also confirmed the existence of compromised cryptocurrency wallets on the Bitcoin and Monero blockchains. Users who registered on the fake site regularly received spam with malicious links that posed a serious threat to security and privacy.
Since the leak affects almost 10 million people, its consequences can be very serious. Affected users are encouraged to take their own measures to protect their data and assets. These measures include changing passwords, blocking malicious email addresses, stopping the use of compromised cryptocurrency wallets, and switching to more secure email services.
• Source: https://cybernews.com/security/zlibrary-copycat-exposes-millions-digital-pirates/
