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Online boutique ExploitHub, which sells code to attack software security holes, has been plundered by hackers. A database snaffled from the marketplace was dumped online as proof of the raid.

ExploitHub admitted a breach of its systems occurred, but said any information lifted was limited to a discussion board about its wares rather than the actual paid-for downloads or other sensitive data. The website sells copies of exploit code written by researchers who discover security vulnerabilities in software and takes a cut in the process.

"We hacked exploithub.com because the people who publish private exploits on exploithub.com need know that the ExploitHub Admins are lamers and can not provide them with adequate security," the team said.

ExploitHub said a combination of human error and poor security controls allowed the breach to take place, but said its software goods were not exposed, contrary to claims by ‪Inj3ct0r‬ Team that it had raided ExploitHub's databases and FTP server files.

ExploitHub's operators stated:

After our initial investigation we have determined that the web application server itself was compromised and access to the database on that server was available to the attacker. The server was compromised through an accessible install script that was left on the system rather than being removed after installation, which was an embarrassing oversight on our part.

The database on that server however only contains information used by the web application itself as well as product information such as exploit name, price, and author, but does not contain any actual product data such as exploit code. The product data is stored elsewhere and there is currently no evidence that the storage location was accessed by any unauthorised party or that any of the exploit code or other product data has been compromised or stolen as has been claimed, however our investigation is ongoing.

The exploit information provided in Inj3ct0r's attack announcement text file and SQL dump consists of exploit names, prices, the dates they were submitted to the market, the Authors' IDs, and the Authors' usernames, all of which is publicly available information retrievable from the web application's normal browse and search functions; this is not private information and it was already publicly accessible by simply searching the product catalog through the website.

ExploitHub said the architecture of its systems "drastically limit and contain the impact of a successful compromise of its public-facing component, the web application server, to prevent the further compromise of any valuable product data such as exploit code".

Unlike similar online marketplaces, ExploitHub only flogs exploits for vulnerabilities that have been disclosed in public - there are no zero-day exploits to pick up and launch before vendors can patch the holes.

"There is currently no evidence that the exploits or other products themselves have been compromised or stolen," ExploitHub stated. ®

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