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Hosting provider DreamHost has confirmed that customer emails and login data were stolen in an attack that began in August (techcrunch.com). For businesses in Kazakhstan that host their websites or email there, the risk extends to files and correspondence. The attackers also obtained data that allows them to access other users’ accounts.
What happened
Hackers exploited a vulnerability in DreamHost’s file manager, a tool customers use to manage their files. In a notice to California’s attorney general, the company said the attack lasted several months.
DreamHost announced the breach after an outage that lasted several days. During that time, the service reset some customers’ passwords. A company spokesperson declined to explain why the attack had not been detected earlier, citing the investigation.
What this means for Kazakhstan
For a business in Kazakhstan whose website is hosted on DreamHost, the way the hackers gained access matters. They obtained session tokens, data that keeps users logged in after they enter their passwords. A stolen token allows an attacker to act as the user.
What a business stores with the provider therefore matters too. DreamHost confirmed that customer emails and login data had been stolen. The vulnerability was in a tool used to store files, so the attack affects several types of customer data.
A DreamHost spokesperson put the share of affected customers at “significantly less than 10%” but gave no exact figure. The hosting provider says it has around 400 thousand paying customers. These figures describe the overall scale of the service and do not confirm whether any particular account was affected by the breach.
What remains unknown
DreamHost has not disclosed which vulnerability the attackers exploited. The company clarified that it was unrelated to recently discovered vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used to run websites.
The investigation is ongoing. Its findings should clarify the details of the attack; for now, the company is not disclosing the exact number of affected customers.
