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Adobe shuts down Connect user forum, confirms passwords raided

Connect itself untouched - unless you used the same login

Adobe has admitted that its Connectusers.com forum database was compromised, exposing password information about users of its conferencing technology in the process.

Potentially exposed passwords were hashed using MD5, but it's not clear whether or not they were salted, an extra security precaution that thwarts brute force attacks based on compiling rainbow tables of password hashes from dictionaries of plain text passwords.

Adobe suspended the forum on Tuesday night in response to the breach, reportedly pulled off using a SQL injection attack. It is working to restore services, resetting the passwords of users in the service in the process. In a statement, the software developer stressed that the Adobe Connect web conferencing service itself was not affected by the breach.

Adobe is currently investigating reports of a compromise of a Connectusers.com forum database. These reports first started circulating late during the day on Tuesday, November 13, 2012. At this point of our investigation, it appears that the Connectusers.com forum site was compromised by an unauthorized third party. It does not appear that any other Adobe services, including the Adobe Connect conferencing service itself, were impacted.

An advisory from the software giant goes on remind everyone to use different login credentials across different websites and services. This is common-sense password security advice that limits users' exposure to harm in the event that any of the services they use suffers a breach that exposes their private information, sadly an increasingly frequent occurrence. Adobe apologised to forum members for the breach.

Adobe Connect offers online conferencing and collaboration software used for applications including online training and web conferencing. It's unclear how many users of the software have created profiles in the affected Connectusers.com forum. It's also unclear who might have pulled off the attack or why.

The exposure of user information following database breaches is becoming an increasing frequent occurrence. Notable examples have resulted in the potential leak of more than 6 million LinkedIn password hashes back in June.

Last year hack attacks on sites including Gawker and the network of Sony's gaming division have led to the leak of hundreds of thousands of users' credentials online.®

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