4chan Hack Source Code Disaster

Some funny bits of the 4chan hack I haven't seen mentioned yet: * The hacker managed to gain root access because the site runs on a version of FreeBSD that was last updated in 2016 * A non-insignificant portion of the janitors/mods that were doxed used .edu emails * They managed to dump the source code * Almost the entirety of 4chan is a badly formatted, mostly uncommented 10,000+ line file called imgboard.php * Some functions, like the one that makes a new post, are over 2000(!!!) lines long I'm not a PHP programmer so I can't make heads or tails of any specifics but this codebase is a complete disaster all around. It's easy to see why zero work has been done on the site since Moot left. Disgraceful get_last_post_no(); ie(); e 'rake_post'; /aprill_rage_commit(); ie('@Mio'); reak; ault; equire_request_method("GET"); f( JANITOR_BOARD == 1 && !has_level('janit...'); dle(' '); f( $res ) { resredir( $res ); else { updating_index(); 10.1-RELEASE-p45 #16 r2: janies: 5.44, 4.85, 4.78 GING@ IDLE WHAT

A screenshot of a post about the 4chan hack lists embarrassing details about the site's security and source code, alongside deliberately messy PHP and system-code snippets. The punchline is that a supposedly enormous website is portrayed as badly maintained legacy code, making the author mock its incompetence and lack of updates. EN: A screenshot of a post about the 4chan hack lists embarrassing details about the site's security and source code, alongside deliberately messy PHP and system-code snippets. The punchline is that a supposedly enormous website is portrayed as badly maintained legacy code, making the author mock its incompetence and lack of updates.

• @gentoomemes / 16899 2025-04-15