4chan is finally backed up and run – mainly. The infamous Imageboard initially dropped two weeks ago, spreading its anonymous residents in the wind. Now, it has basically recovered, and users flock to the infamous stampede they are familiar with. However, not all 4chan boards will return.
In the first substantive post of the official blog in eight years, 4Chan’s team confirmed speculation that the power outage was caused by hackers and that the source code has been compromised. Specifically, the blog says hackers with UK IP addresses can use their outdated software to access 4chan’s servers via PDF upload. The hacker then extracted a large amount of 4CHAN’s source code before breaking the website and prompting the host to turn it off.
“Although not all servers were violated, most importantly, this is due to the fact that the old operating system and code are not updated in time at all,” 4Chan’s blog wrote on Friday.
It is reported that 4chan fell and was hacked as of April 15
The blog called the damage “disastrous” and said 4chan’s failure to update its code was due to “insufficient hours of skilled labor” and lack of funds. Not surprisingly, it seems that advertisers are associated with websites commonly described as “Internet sewage pools,” which makes it difficult to get cash. So, while 4chan partially moved to new servers in the second half of last year, its old hardware is still taking care of key features.
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“Everything about this process is much longer than expected, and it’s a recurring theme of this crash,” 4chan wrote. “The free time 4chan’s development team can use 4chan isn’t enough to quickly update our software and infrastructure, and we’ve run out of luck.”
The two-week interruption of 4Chan gave its development team time to patch security vulnerabilities and began to attract more volunteers. The blog notes that the 4chan team has since replaced the damaged server and updated its software. The server status checker on the 4chan blog shows that while posts on the image board are largely as usual, they still don’t return full functionality when writing.
Despite this, 4chan will never return to his former avatar. Given this violation, the ability to upload PDFs is expected to return soon. However, the flash board /f/ has been killed because “there is no realistic way to prevent similar exploits using .swf files”. While /f/ is still available on the homepage and navigation bar for 4chan, it seems to eventually be removed according to this announcement.
Even without hacking, the death of /f/ was a long time. Adobe first announced that it would stop supporting Flash Player in 2017, and finally announced that it had ended in 2020.
4chan is easy to illustrate, with a controversial history and reputation. Suspicious Internet Strong Internet Strong, launched in 2003, became a breeding ground for memes, controversy, and actions such as hacker groups’ anonymity and far-right conspiracy theories.
