CLF09 Alleged Data Exposure
The 2022 CLF09 (CaoLiu Community) data breach occurred in July 2022 when user databases belonging to CLF09 / CaoLiu (clf09.com), a widely known Chinese-language discussion and media forum, were published on BreachForums.
Exposed Data Types
3- Email addresses
- Passwords
- Usernames
About This Record
What information was compromised in the CLF09 incident?
The leaked dataset (clf09.com.csv) comprises over 3.2 million forum account credentials. Impacted data classes include:
- User Identity: Registered community usernames.
- Contact Coordinates: Validated user email addresses (featuring widespread QQ, NetEase 163, and Gmail addresses).
- Authentication Secrets: MD5-hashed account passwords.
How many accounts were affected?
Standardized RFC 5322 ASCII canonical verification confirmed 2,451,635 unique valid email addresses across 3.28 million total raw records.
Security risks and recommendations
Standard unsalted MD5 hashes provide negligible resistance against modern lookup tables and high-speed GPU cracking. The exposure of usernames and email addresses poses substantial risks for credential stuffing across other Chinese and global platforms. Affected users should:
- Change passwords on CLF09 and any services sharing identical credentials immediately.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on all primary email and messaging accounts.
- Utilize password managers to maintain isolated credentials.
Verification and editorial method
LeakData compares the incident name, date, affected-record count, and exposed data types with accessible sources. Unverified fields are not presented as facts, and records are updated when new evidence becomes available.
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