ImageShack has been hacked.

[MordEth]

I don’t know any details on this, but apparently someone has managed to replace quite a number of images on ImageShack with a diatribe from some hacking group. You may wish to check any images that you have hosted with ImageShack and confirm that they have not been replaced—then use another service like Photobucket.

Their ‘message’ claims that no images were hurt in the process, but I have no clue what ImageShack will be able to recover, if anything. So hopefully our members have copies of any images that have been replaced. Here is a thread on their forum where multiple people report the issue. If the latest report there is correct, your images at ImageShack have been renamed, and new images with the ‘message’ have been put in their place. So you should be able to delete these and revert your images.

Note: The only result of this ImageShack hack is the replacement of images. Currently, I am not aware of any way that an image can be used to harm your computer.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

— MordEth

[OrthoFan]

Hi David:

I've just posted a similar announcement on Phonoland as a global sticky. I checked over there, right after I PM'd you, and noticed that some of the images hosted on ImageShack had, indeed, been replaced with this diatribe.

As with this forum, users of Phonoland can host their images on-site.

I sure hope that ImageShack can get to the bottom of this. Personally I'd love to catch the poop-heads responsible for this and stick a needle into a strategic location of their anatomy and make them play an over-modulated recording of the 1812 Overture (with cannon).

OF

[WDC]

David, Thank you for this announcement. It finally happened.

I am gladly not affected but this shows the general problem with free image hosting sites. Hopefully, Photobucket will not get into similar troubles in the future.

Direct image hosting is great but sometimes does not work for, especially when I want to embed an image into the text instead of attaching it to the bottom. Furthermore, external hosting reduces traffic to the site.

[MordEth]

Everyone,

It appears that ImageShack has fixed everyone’s images. Hopefully they have patched whatever security flaw was exploited. I’ll add a follow-up post when there is more infornation.

Direct image hosting is great but sometimes does not work for, especially when I want to embed an image into the text instead of attaching it to the bottom. Furthermore, external hosting reduces traffic to the site.

Norman,

Thankfully, the hosting package for the TMF includes unlimited bandwidth and storage. So it’s not necessary to worry about traffic. However, your other point is quite good—while you can insert an uploaded attachment anywhere in your message, there is no option to not have it boxed with its file name (and file comment, if the uploader adds one).

After this, though, I’m glad that I do not use ImageShack.

— MordEth