Notice of security breach on Ubuntu Forums site

This article is more than 12 years old.


There has been a security breach on the Ubuntu Forums site, ubuntuforums.org. We take information security and user privacy very seriously, and apologise for the breach and ensuing inconvenience.

At this time,

  • We have confirmed the attackers were able to access all user email addresses and hashed passwords on the Forums site. While the passwords were not stored in plain text, good practice dictates that users should assume the passwords have been accessed and change them. If users used the same password on other services they should immediately change that password.
  • We believe the issue is limited to the Ubuntu Forums and no other Ubuntu or Canonical site or service is affected.
  • We have begun the process of notifying by email all users whose details have been compromised.
  • We are continuing to investigate exactly how the attackers were able to gain access and are working with the software providers to address that issue. Once the investigation is concluded we will provide as much detail as we safely can.

The forums site will remain down until we can safely bring it up, and updates will be posted to the ubuntuforums.org page as they are available. Once again, we apologise for the issue.

In the meantime, if you’re using Ubuntu and need technical support please see the following page for support:

Finding Help

If you’re looking for a place to discuss Ubuntu we encourage you to check out these sites:

The Ubuntu subreddit

The Ubuntu Community on Google+

Ubuntu Discourse

Talk to us today

Interested in running Ubuntu in your organisation?

Newsletter signup

Get the latest Ubuntu news and updates in your inbox.

By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to Canonical's Privacy Policy.

Related posts

Hot code burns

Zero CVEs doesn’t mean secure. It means unexamined. New code has zero CVEs because no one has studied it yet, and if you’re rebuilding nightly from upstream,...

Canonical joins the Rust Foundation as a Gold Member

Canonical’s Gold-level investment in the Rust Foundation supports the long-term health of the Rust programming language and highlights its growing role in...

Canonical partners with Snyk for scanning chiseled Ubuntu containers

Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, is pleased to announce a new partnership with developer-focused cybersecurity company Snyk. Snyk Container, Snyk’s...