More info on T Series website hack

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Update (December 13)

Turns out @j3ws3r is the one who took down T-Series website. Even their Twitter bio now mentions that T-Series website is still down.

The hacker has spoken exclusively to Wired about the printer hack and other hacks they have been involved in. The article reveals there are more than one people behind this account. One of them said getting support for PewDiePie was not the only motive behind printer hacks.

We hope that we can raise proper awareness of ports open to the public internet and servers running Apache

The story then goes on to reveal that @TheHackerGiraffe used IoT search engine Shodan to find printers that can be hacked. And Masscan (a penetration testing kit) was used for port scanning. And here’s an example of what happened:

Close to 100,000 printers were hacked this way. Regarding the T-Series hack, @j3ws3r said:

I found a huge vulnerability in the T-Series website. A slow HTTP denial of service I can practically run from my iPod 2G and still take the site down – it’s dangerous

They said they tried contacting T-Series in every which way it was possible, including calling them, but when they failed, they decided to show them what can be done. And the took down the website. As it stands, the site is still down.

The Wired story is a must read, don’t miss it.

Update (December 12):

While chatter in hackers’ circle indicates T-Series has fixed the vulnerability that was previously found, the site is still not accessible.

https://twitter.com/j3ws3r/status/1072626530344452096

Original story follows:

A couple of days back, we highlighted that the official T-Series website is down, likely to due to a hacking attempt. Now, new information related to the matter has surfaced.

Two different people – including the one who hacked printers worldwide in an attempt to gather more subscribers for PewDiePie – admitted they were aware of a vulnerability in the T-Series website server and even tried contacting the company to let them know about it.

https://twitter.com/HackerGiraffe/status/1069093157814632450

https://twitter.com/j3ws3r/status/1071093510957355008

‘TheHackerGiraffe’, one behind the printer hack, shared the information about the hack last week on Reddit.

It was in this thread, the hacker made it clear they had no involvement in the attack, although chatter on the thread suggest they did try to take down the website for a few minutes to confirm their claims of the site being vulnerable to attack are true.

Anyway, someone claiming to be the actual hacker also dropped a comment on the thread, acknowledging the website was taken down by them.

That was me everyone . I’m one of the 9 years olds https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/518999508806270996/518999640742559755/unknown.png

my discord : Zeph#8510

The language – “one of the 9 years olds” – clearly indicates they are a PewDiePie fan. Following is the image they shared (click/tap to view full size):

Another user on the same thread shared a screenshot of a separate Reddit thread apparently started by Zeph where also the latter publicly confirmed they took down T-Series.

With all this happening, it’s now reasonable to say the PewDiePie vs T-Series website has taken a nasty turn. Up until now, it was all about urging for support and clever tactics, but with websites being taken down (which is illegal), it’s fun no more.

While PewDiePie is in no way involved in this hack, he has got embroiled in a new, major controversy by endorsing a YouTube channel that shares hateful and anti-Semitic stuff. More on that here.

Thanks for the tip, anonymous!!!
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