More Than 100,000 ChatGPT Accounts Stolen By Malware

According to a report by Group-IB, a global cybersecurity leader headquartered in Singapore, over 101,134 devices with saved ChatGPT credentials were found to be infected with stealer malware. The compromised credentials were discovered within information stealer logs made available for sale on the cybercrime underground. The public records containing compromised ChatGPT accounts peaked at 26,802 in May 2023.

The report reveals that ChatGPT accounts have been targeted by info-stealer malware Raccoon, Vidar, and Redline. Raccoon has compromised the majority of accounts (78,348), with Vidar (12,984) and Redline (6,773) also contributing to the logs containing credentials. This is a significant increase in ChatGPT accounts targeted in underground forums.

Group-IB states that the Asia-Pacific region had almost 41,000 compromised ChatGPT accounts between June 2022 and May 2023, Europe nearly 17,000, and North America 4,700. BleepingComputer highlighted that ChatGPT accounts are becoming increasingly crucial for businesses as they allow users to store conversations. Accessing one’s account might give insights into internal business strategies, personal communications, software code, etc.

“Many enterprises are integrating ChatGPT into their operational flow,” says Dmitry Shestakov, Head of Threat Intelligence at Group-IB. “Employees enter classified correspondences or use the bot to optimize proprietary code. Given that ChatGPT’s standard configuration retains all conversations, this could inadvertently offer a trove of sensitive intelligence to threat actors if they obtain account credentials.”

In addition, a vulnerability in the redis-py open-source library was at the root of the ChatGPT data leak a few months ago, which exposed chat history and personal and billing data. Enterprises need to be aware of the potential security risks of ChatGPT and take necessary measures to protect their sensitive information.