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WineHQ’s Database Compromised

Wine, a popular emulator for Linux and other operating systems that allows you to install and run Windows applications, informed account holders today via e-mail that its database has been compromised through phpMyAdmin.

From the e-mail that was sent out:

I am sad to say that there was a compromise of the WineHQ database system.

What we know at this point that someone was able to obtain unauthorized access to the phpmyadmin utility. We do not exactly how they obtained access; it was either by compromising an admins credentials, or by exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in phpmyadmin.

The integrity of the databases could be a concern as well as the e-mail/password combination that could be used on other sites if a shared password is used (This is why you don’t do this. Didn’t you learn from Gawker’s breach?). WineHQ joins Linux’s Kernel.org and MySQL.com in recent compromises seemingly targeting developers.

On the one hand, we saw no evidence of harm to any database. We saw no evidence of any attempt to change the database (and candidly, using the real appdb or bugzilla is the easy way to change the database).

Unfortunately, the attackers were able to download the full login database for both the appdb and bugzilla. This means that they have all of those emails, as well as the passwords. The passwords are stored encrypted, but with enough effort and depending on the quality of the password, they can be cracked.

This, I’m afraid, is a serious threat; it means that anyone who uses the same email / password on other systems is now vulnerable to a malicious attacker using that information to access their account.

We are going to be resetting every password and sending a private email to every affected user.

The full message was also posted to the WineHQ forums if you wish to ask any questions regarding the breach.