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New York Times source code stolen using exposed GitHub token. Internal source code and data belonging to The New York Times was leaked on the 4chan message board after being stolen from the company's GitHub repositories in January 2024, The Times confirmed to BleepingComputer. As first seen by VX-Underground, the internal data was leaked on Thursday by an anonymous user who posted a torrent to a 273GB archive containing the stolen data. "Basically all source code belonging to The New York Times Company, 270GB," reads the 4chan forum post. "There are around 5 thousand repos (out of them less than 30 are additionally encrypted I think), 3.6 million files total, uncompressed tar." While BleepingComputer did not download the archive, the threat actor shared a text file containing a complete list of the 6,223 folders stolen from the company's GitHub repository. The folder names indicate that a wide variety of information was stolen, including IT documentation, infrastructure tools, and source code, allegedly including the viral Wordle game. A 'readme' file in the archive states that the threat actor used an exposed GitHub token to access the company's repositories and steal the data. In a statement to BleepingComputer, The Times said the breach occurred in January 2024 after credentials for a cloud-based third-party code platform were exposed. A subsequent email confirmed this code platform was GitHub. "The underlying event related to yesterday’s posting occurred in January 2024 when a credential to a cloud-based third-party code platform was inadvertently made available. The issue was quickly identified and we took appropriate measures in response at the time. There is no indication of unauthorized access to Times-owned systems nor impact to our operations related to this event. Our security measures include continuous monitoring for anomalous activity." The company said that the breach of its GitHub account did not affect its internal corporate systems and had no impact on its operations. The Times leak is the second one published to 4chan this week, with the first being a leak of 415MB of stolen internal documents for Disney's Club Penguin game. Sources exclusively told BleepingComputer that the Club Penguin leak was part of a more significant breach of Disney's Confluence server, where the threat actors stole 2.5 GB of internal corporate data. It is not known if it was the same person who conducted the New York Times and Disney breaches.

Daily Brief Summary

DATA BREACH // New York Times Suffers Major GitHub Data Leak

The New York Times confirmed internal source code and data were stolen and subsequently leaked on 4chan, traced back to a compromised GitHub account used by the company.

A 273GB archive containing the stolen Times' source code and other data was shared on 4chan by an anonymous user, showcasing around 3.6 million files from approximately 5,000 GitHub repositories.

The leaked data includes a variety of information such as IT documentation, infrastructure tools, and source code for several internal applications, including the popular Wordle game.

The breach, occurring in January 2024, was enabled by an exposed GitHub token which allowed unauthorized access to the company's GitHub repositories.

The New York Times stated the compromised GitHub credential was quickly discovered and secured, asserting that no unauthorized access to Times-owned systems nor an operational impact was evident.

This incident marks the second major leak reported on 4chan in the same week, with the first involving stolen data from Disney's Club Penguin game.

Continuous monitoring and other enhanced security measures have been highlighted by The Times as a response to prevent further incidents.