A newly emerged menace actor, going by the alias “Often9,” has posted on a outstanding cybercrime and database buying and selling discussion board, claiming to own 428 million distinctive TikTok person information. The submit is titled “TikTok 2025 Breach – 428M Distinctive Strains.”
The vendor’s submit, which appeared on the discussion board yesterday (Could 29, 2025), guarantees a dataset containing detailed person info similar to:
- E-mail addresses
- Cell phone numbers
- Biography, avatar URLs, and profile hyperlinks
- TikTok person IDs, usernames, and nicknames
- Account flags like private_account, secret, verified, and ttSeller standing.
- Publicly seen metrics similar to follower counts, following counts, like counts, video counts, digg counts, and good friend counts.
The inclusion of private fields similar to e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, and inside account flags is just not one thing that may be casually scraped from TikTok’s public-facing web site or cell app. If these particulars are verified by TikTok to be correct and up to date, it suggests entry to both inside TikTok techniques or an uncovered third-party database.
Menace Actor Explains How the Alleged TikTok Breach Occurred
Somebody on the discussion board requested the hacker how the info was extracted, whether or not it was simply scraping or one thing extra. In response, the hacker defined how they allegedly managed to extract the info.
“Usually, TikTok doesn’t present any public API to entry personal information like emails or telephone numbers. However some time in the past, attributable to a vulnerability in one in all their inside APIs, it was doable to extract this information. We found and abused that API earlier than it was patched, which allowed us to gather this dataset. So technically sure, it seems to be like scraping, however it was performed via an exploitable endpoint, not easy public crawling. So briefly: it’s scraped through API, however as a result of it leveraged a flaw to entry information that wasn’t meant to be public, It’s a breach.”
Often9
What does Often9’s reply imply? The menace says that beneath regular situations, TikTok doesn’t present any public device (API) that lets somebody entry personal particulars like emails or telephone numbers. However sooner or later, they discovered a vulnerability in one in all TikTok’s inside APIs.
This flaw allowed them to tug out personal person information that was not meant to be accessible. They used (and abused) this vulnerability earlier than TikTok fastened it, letting them gather a big dataset.
Whereas this course of may appear to be “scraping” (which normally means gathering public information utilizing automated instruments), on this case, it was extra critical as a result of it concerned exploiting an inside system that uncovered private info
Including to the burden of the declare, the menace actor is prepared to work via a intermediary, a standard method on prison boards when large-scale information gross sales require third-party verification to construct purchaser belief.
However Right here’s Why Skepticism Is Warranted
Regardless of the attention-grabbing gross sales pitch from the menace actor, a number of crimson flags forged doubt on the validity of the declare. Importantly, a big variety of pattern entries present empty or generic fields for emails and telephone numbers, elevating the likelihood that this dataset was put collectively from scraped public profiles and organised utilizing previous breach information or guesswork.
The menace actor is a brand new account on the discussion board, having joined solely days in the past, with no status, neither constructive nor unfavourable. Within the cybercrime world, status is forex; main breach sellers sometimes have years of verified historical past or previous profitable gross sales.
The discussion board itself has a current historical past of inflated or false breach claims. Notably, the identical platform was used final week to advertise a so-called “1.2 billion Fb person” information sale, which was later uncovered as faux in an unique Hackread.com investigation, resulting in the vendor’s ban.
A more in-depth take a look at the pattern information reveals that many fields, person IDs, usernames, profile hyperlinks, and follower metrics, are publicly accessible and may very well be obtained via large-scale scraping operations. Whereas scraping at scale can nonetheless pose dangers (like phishing or spam campaigns), it doesn’t equate to a breach of inside techniques.
Cross-Checking E-mail Addresses with HaveIBeenPwned
Hackread.com additionally cross-checked the e-mail addresses within the pattern information in opposition to information on HaveIBeenPwned, and most had been present in fewer than two earlier information breaches. That is alarming and provides some legitimacy to the individuality of the info. Nonetheless, a 1,200-line pattern from a supposedly 428 million document breach is just not sufficient to ascertain legitimacy.
For now, this declare must be handled with warning. As tempting because the gross sales numbers could also be, reputationless sellers on cybercrime boards typically exaggerate or fabricate to make a fast revenue or appeal to consideration.
Not The First Time
This isn’t the primary time a menace actor has claimed to breach TikTok’s information. In September 2022, a hacker claimed to have acquired 2 billion TikTok information, together with inside statistics, supply code, 790 GB of person information, and extra, a declare that was later denied by the corporate.
Hackread.com has reached out to TikTok and may verify that the social media big is investigating the alleged breach.
