bitcoin.org hacked.

[gredinger]

scam site is scam.

[1714558711]

1714558711

[1714558711]

1714558711

[1714558711]

1714558711

[noorman0]

Looks like you're right, the start page pops up offering a bitcoin doubler. I believe the site has been compromised.


So far, the address of the scammer has collected 0.4 bitcoin
https://www.blockchain.com/es/btc/address/1NgoFwgsfZ19RrCUhTmmuLpmdek45nRd5N

https://twitter.com/ErichGarciaCruz/status/1440872885363478536

[nullama]

Here's the whois data, just updated now, when the hack happened:

Domain Name: BITCOIN.ORG
Updated Date: 2021-09-23T02:10:17Z
Creation Date: 2008-08-18T13:19:55Z

[lucky80]

Here's the whois data, just updated now, when the hack happened:

Domain Name: BITCOIN.ORG
Updated Date: 2021-09-23T02:10:17Z
Creation Date: 2008-08-18T13:19:55Z

Crazy. I got panic and open a new thread. I just closed it. Please guys make this thread active so people are aware of what happened.

Hacker wallet

[Foxpup]

TLS certificate updated too, on 2021-09-23T02:21:13Z. Definitely a hack.

[Darker45]

My goodness! The site appears compromised indeed. Information should be disseminated across various social media platforms so that people will be given a heads up that the official website of Bitcoin is hacked.

Although double-your-money is clearly an offer from scammers, people might think this is legitimate as the site has been deemed trustworthy. They might send money to the hackers.

I suspect the culprit has some connections or might be an avid supporter of CSW.

[ranochigo]

The site doesn't work at all, only that page is showing up. Any other individual pages cannot be loaded, only the page with the doubler message is working.

[_Miracle]

*bump
bitcoin.org still down @ 9:45 pm PST

[leea-1334]

Confirming still down for me also even with various VPNs,,, does anyone know if there is any other place for anyone from there to make announcements? Their Twitter has been inactive almost a year from what I can see,,, hope not too many people fell for that scam, this is really a hit in the stomach for them.

[achow101]

Namecheap (their registrar) took it down for now via removing the nameserver entries.

does anyone know if there is any other place for anyone from there to make announcements? Their Twitter has been inactive almost a year from what I can see,,, hope not too many people fell for that scam, this is really a hit in the stomach for them.

Bitcoin.org is owned by Cobra, his twitter is https://twitter.com/CobraBitcoin/

There will probably be something in the github repo. I opened an issue when I noticed this, so at least that will be closed when this is resolved: https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/Bitcoin.org/issues/3743


Looks like Cobra is aware: https://twitter.com/CobraBitcoin/status/1440903346991337472

[BD Crypto]

Confirming still down for me also even with various VPNs,,, does anyone know if there is any other place for anyone from there to make announcements? Their Twitter has been inactive almost a year from what I can see,,, hope not too many people fell for that scam, this is really a hit in the stomach for them.

You can visit my post in Scam Accusations board to know more about the scam.Thay already scammed a huge amount from here.

Scammed : 0.40571238 BTC till now.

I just tried to visit and now showing down but I already shared details here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5361408.msg58002016#msg58002016

[dkbit98]

I think that Cøbra started using using Cloudflare few months ago on his bitcoin.org website and hack happened after that because of some DNS flaws.

I never trusted Cloudflare and my question is should Bitcointalk forum continue using Cloudflare or start using some alternative option to avoid something like this happening?

Here is Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince statement bragging how cryptocurrency exchanges are also using Cloudflare:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/13/cloudflare-ceo-says-crypto-exchanges-are-a-popular-target-for-cyber-attackers.html

With regret, I am (for now) admitting defeat on the DDoS front, and we will soon be using using Cloudflare to protect against DDoS attacks.

I especially dislike Cloudflare, which I'm almost certain is basically owned by US intelligence agencies.

PS
I really don't understand people who are still sending BTC to scammers like this   0.4 BTC gone with the wind, in scammers pocket.

[davis196]

Damn.I'm glad I've never used bitcoin.org in my life before.
We have to track all the outgoing transactions of this scammers wallet.Perhaps this is the only way to catch the scammer,unless he tries to use a Bitcoin mixer.Why he isn't moving the BTC away from this wallet?
Blacklisting this Bitcoin wallet address is also necessary.
Why do people keep falling for this "double your Bitcoin" shit?
4 transactions with a total value of more than 17K USD?WTF?

 

[jcojci]

Confirming still down for me also even with various VPNs,,, does anyone know if there is any other place for anyone from there to make announcements? Their Twitter has been inactive almost a year from what I can see,,, hope not too many people fell for that scam, this is really a hit in the stomach for them.

You can visit my post in Scam Accusations board to know more about the scam.Thay already scammed a huge amount from here.

Scammed : 0.40571238 BTC till now.

I just tried to visit and now showing down but I already shared details here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5361408.msg58002016#msg58002016

Wow, that hacker/scammer already got 0.40571238 BTC. I can not imagine how many people are being tricked by that and send the money to them.

It is an old trick that still works until now and maybe that will exist in the future as many new people are not aware of it.

[Leviathan.007]

That's correct, a few minutes ago I saw u.today reporting about it: https://u.today/breaking-bitcoinorg-hacked-by-scammers
Bitcoin.Org is one of the oldest or actually the oldest bitcoin domain, years ago, registered by Satoshi Nakamoto himself, and a few years ago after things happened with fake satoshi he made the website to remove bitcoin whitepaper from the official webpage. But, the whole point about this attack is the method they use, they are using the same method to scam people just like a few months ago some scammers were hacking the Twitter accounts of popular people and they tried to scam people by promising them high returns.

[Magicalking]

More people will fall for the scam thinking everything is legit, they believe the site is maintained by Satoshi Nakamoto which is false information. Someone posted the news on Reddit and called Bitcoin.org the "Bitcoin foundation". This is how much false information is on the internet. DYOR is the best way to survive in crypto

[DapanasFruit]

My goodness! The site appears compromised indeed. Information should be disseminated across various social media platforms so that people will be given a heads up that the official website of Bitcoin is hacked. Although double-your-money is clearly an offer from scammers, people might think this is legitimate as the site has been deemed trustworthy. They might send money to the hackers. I suspect the culprit has some connections or might be an avid supporter of CSW.

This is another sad day and one more reasons why there should be a solid and unhackable infrastructure to be provided to whole of cryptocurrency industry but this is more of a pipedream for now. The enticing offer to double one's Bitcoin is already a very popular scam and may not be victimizing those who are already here for months and years but obviously the offer can be effective to newbies as it is appealing to human's greediness. Hope nobody else can be a victim of the scam. I am expecting a full story of this soon.

[NeuroticFish]

Yeah, I just got some minutes ago a strange error in my browser too:

Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to bitcoin.org. Cannot communicate securely with peer: no common encryption algorithm(s).

Error code: SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP

At first didn't know what it means. Now I understand. Thanks OP.

[bL4nkcode]

More people will fall for the scam thinking everything is legit, they believe the site is maintained by Satoshi Nakamoto which is false information.

Only greedy people/newbies will believe such offer, either it was posted in any reputed website. Coz people with enough knowledge can easily differentiate a legit and have a doubt even it was posted on popular twitter/facebook personality, or any popular websites.

[boyptc]

It was hacked.

Been following a certain page named ExploitWarelabs, that are posting hack updates from different websites and as well as in deep/dark web.

[zanezane]

It seems that even that site isn't immune to this kind of thing, the site opens up with a doubler scam, hopefully someone checks the address to see if someone has already fallen for that scam, hopefully they can fix the website.

[Gudhal Untu]

Surprising when a few hours ago I opened the site and was directed to send bitcoin to an address with the promise of getting a bonus, yes it looks like bitcoin.org has been hacked and I hope it will be fixed soon and there will be an official announcement from official social media.

[Ucy]

I think that Cøbra started using using Cloudflare few months ago on his bitcoin.org website and hack happened after that because of some DNS flaws.

I never trusted Cloudflare and my question is should Bitcointalk forum continue using Cloudflare or start using some alternative option to avoid something like this happening?

Here is Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince statement bragging how cryptocurrency exchanges are also using Cloudflare:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/13/cloudflare-ceo-says-crypto-exchanges-are-a-popular-target-for-cyber-attackers.html

With regret, I am (for now) admitting defeat on the DDoS front, and we will soon be using using Cloudflare to protect against DDoS attacks.

I especially dislike Cloudflare, which I'm almost certain is basically owned by US intelligence agencies.

PS
I really don't understand people who are still sending BTC to scammers like this   0.4 BTC gone with the wind, in scammers pocket.

It's possible that hackers who are not really interested in the money would do that and send coins to themselves . I'm not very convinced that lots of people will send money so easily to people they don't know, unless they find it really convincing probably by thinking they are popular people who post about Bitcoin.

It's also interesting how lots of such scams happen via centralized websites

[sam00]

When I visit "bitcoin.org" I get redirected to "https://bitcoin.org/de/" which seems to be working fine.
I can only vaguely remember using the site some months ago but there's definitely no pop up asking me for bitcoins or claming to double my coins or whatever.

[john_nautica]

When I visit "bitcoin.org" I get redirected to "https://bitcoin.org/de/" which seems to be working fine.
I can only vaguely remember using the site some months ago but there's definitely no pop up asking me for bitcoins or claming to double my coins or whatever.

I have never used bitcoin.org before, and I am somehow glad that I did not, especially this time. Upon checking the site, I also get redirected to the same link and is working fine for me as well. And no message popping up that asks to send bitcoin and a promise of bonus.

[vv181]

When I visit "bitcoin.org" I get redirected to "https://bitcoin.org/de/" which seems to be working fine.
~

As of now, I also can confirm that the site is working as expected, and I do too got redirected to the /en/ language page. There are still no announcements and information about the site is up and about the true causes of the hack, @Cøbra said it was DNS hijacking but let's see if there are any further information about it.

[leea-1334]

Bitcoin.org is owned by Cobra, his twitter is https://twitter.com/CobraBitcoin/

There will probably be something in the github repo. I opened an issue when I noticed this, so at least that will be closed when this is resolved:

Looks like Cobra is aware: https://twitter.com/CobraBitcoin/status/1440903346991337472

Thank you. I actually forgot all about Cobra

Damn.I'm glad I've never used bitcoin.org in my life before.
We have to track all the outgoing transactions of this scammers wallet.Perhaps this is the only way to catch the scammer,unless he tries to use a Bitcoin mixer.Why he isn't moving the BTC away from this wallet?

Wow,,, I used to think such people actually did not exist but now I found one. So you actually use bitcointalk and use Bitcoin and yet never used Bitcoin.org in your life ever? How did you learn about Bitcoin and what was your source? People have argued with me soon Bitcoin.org will never even be known and I thought that is ridiculous.

[FatFork]

Wow,,, I used to think such people actually did not exist but now I found one. So you actually use bitcointalk and use Bitcoin and yet never used Bitcoin.org in your life ever? How did you learn about Bitcoin and what was your source? People have argued with me soon Bitcoin.org will never even be known and I thought that is ridiculous.

The domain Bitcoin.org is still the top result on Google (and other) search engines. Until that changes, it will remain relevant to the Bitcoin space. I'm not really sure how many visitors there are per day, but I am guessing quite a few.

[Kinghunter0071]

But let be sincerely with ourselves why some people stood so low and dense to keep sending btc to scammer because some people want double btc in return how can that be possible, we just just have to be careful because those hacker are ready to steal all your investment.

[Kittygalore]

But let be sincerely with ourselves why some people stood so low and dense to keep sending btc to scammer because some people want double btc in return how can that be possible, we just just have to be careful because those hacker are ready to steal all your investment.

Because they're not as smart as you and that was their first encounter of this kind of thing, not to mention that they're also probably desperate and greedy that they always want to try out things that's going to make them quick cash even if it's too good to be true.

[Artemis3]

Ah yes a good old fashioned doubler scam. This is a typical deface, with the deface being the scam itself. Its sad that so many people are foolish to send their money to such obvious scammers.

Wow,,, I used to think such people actually did not exist but now I found one. So you actually use bitcointalk and use Bitcoin and yet never used Bitcoin.org in your life ever? How did you learn about Bitcoin and what was your source? People have argued with me soon Bitcoin.org will never even be known and I thought that is ridiculous.

I barely ever use that site, i have no need for it. I think i went once to download the whitepaper or something, or to do a quick glimpse at other wallets available. As for your question, about where to learn about Bitcoin, the answer is obvious: Bitcointalk

You see, actual newbies will sadly land into bitcoin.com, if they aren't savvy enough to distinguish a legit site from a deface, they are even less to notice .com to .org

It takes a minimal level of understanding that .org meant non-profit organization and .com is the opposite, a commercial site. But even those old customs seem to be fading away so. In the end, the only place with some trust is here, and this may be attacked as well so you have to be wary, the internet is never a safe place.

[ChiBitCTy]

Someone posted about this in one of my bitcoin group chats last night.  I of course ran the public address on the blockexplorer and saw that they had "taken" about .4 bitcoins from people.  Personally I wonder if they might have sent a few fake transactions themselves in order to try and trick people in to believing that others were actually sending in bitcoins.  Who knows though.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Someone posted about this in one of my bitcoin group chats last night.  I of course ran the public address on the blockexplorer and saw that they had "taken" about .4 bitcoins from people.  Personally I wonder if they might have sent a few fake transactions themselves in order to try and trick people in to believing that others were actually sending in bitcoins.  Who knows though.

That's a lot of bitcoin but I doubt that all those came from the scam because why is it exact then? If it did all came from their scams then it's sad that people are still falling for the oldest scam in the book.

[pawanjain]

Even I was surprise when I first got to know about it yesterday.
Looks like the site is back up and running now. It's quite astonishing to see the most trusted site bitcoin.org getting hacked like this.
It would be good to know how this site got hacked. What went wrong and how did they overcome this.
Although this information is sensitive, a little info on the cause could help us identify such threats in the future.

[DdmrDdmr]

What I don’t get is why there is no official announcement as yet, other than that the site has been compromised, and that the events are being looked into. I say this from the point of view of the fact that the site is back up and running (and has been so for quite a few hours), and anyone who read the news, should actually be in doubt as to whether the site poses any danger at all currently. I don't mean about the doubler thingy which is no longer there, but the conceptual gap between the site being up and running and the latest status on the events.

[bixiiMaphi321]

Bitcoin.org is an open source project designed to support the development of Bitcoin. News like this can shake the community a bit, but it's important to note that this will not affect the Bitcoin network, which will continue to function normally. Bitcoin-related third-party websites or services are not directly connected to the Internet. Due to the proof-of-work mechanism implemented by the network, it is not possible to “crack” the blockchain and attempt to crack the system. Also, Bitcoin is designed to be a self-sustaining system, so even if some malicious actor tries to attack it, the network will adjust to keep it running without harm.

[Kakmakr]

I have stopped using the site after Roger Ver and his friends started to use the site to push the agenda that "BCash is the real Bitcoin" ....and since then never even visited it. (When something is toxic, you simply remove it like cancer from your life)

We should keep a close eye on all those old sites that are being neglected, to make sure that it is not being used to exploit people like this. Who is managing the site now......since Roger Ver has gone into hiding? (Just a joke guys...... calm down)  

[isabellel2]

The site appears to be indeed compromised. The information should be disseminated on various social media platforms so that people warn that the official website of Bitcoin has been hacked.
Although doubling your money is clearly an offer from scammers, people always think this is a trustworthy site and they still trust it. And I feel lucky that I haven't used bitcoin.org before.

[lucky80]

Guys! Is it safe now? I saw the scam double pop-up is disappeared.

[yazher]

It's definitely hacked and I think they've been working hard to get up to this point. To those influencers and people who have some massive group, they need to make a big announcement to minimize and for the newbie investors to avoid getting their crypto assets scam by this team of crooks. I'm sure the money that was sent to the scammer wallet is from their other members so that people won't hesitate to send their BTC first.

[sam00]

It's definitely hacked and I think they've been working hard to get up to this point. To those influencers and people who have some massive group, they need to make a big announcement to minimize and for the newbie investors to avoid getting their crypto assets scam by this team of crooks. I'm sure the money that was sent to the scammer wallet is from their other members so that people won't hesitate to send their BTC first.

For a lot of people bitcoin.org is the first website they visit when googling bitcoin or trying to get in on it.
These people don‘t know big influencers yet and those that do, won‘t fall for such a scam.

[Mr.Blocker]

did China Internet Army do it？

[NotATether]

You know, one of my life goals has always been to (peacefully) take ownership of bitcoin.org from Cobra and counter-sue that tick CSW and his nChain cronies to reverse that ridiculous bitcoin.org judgment [I know a network of bullet-proof, pricey hosting providers so that these kinds of break-ins won't happen].

But you know, I'm not that rich yet. 5 figures is definitely not enough to approach anywhere near the bitcoin.org domain valuation. Let alone lawsuits, hooligans, hackers, etc.

did China Internet Army do it？

That's crazy, I don't see why how they could be allowed to put a bitcoin doubler on the site when crypto transactions are already banned in China.

[calchuchesta]

Everyone should SHA-256 checkcums and PGP signatures against anything they have downloaded since the hack happened, otherwise you may have installed compromised wallets which generate addresses that belong to the attacker. Anything is possible if you are able to successfully make a man-in-the-middle attack giving you access to the servers to upload any malware you want.

[savetheFORUM]

the start page pops up offering a bitcoin doubler. I believe the site has been compromised.

This is an old scam strategy, but I know that there are people who still fall for it. I just checked that bitcoin.org website and it seems that it has been fixed. This is the same strategy that was used by those hackers that hacked Twitter accounts of Well known influencers and celebrities. Even before then they have been making use of this same strategy, so it's something old and I believe that by now a lot of people must have known that it is a scam and would also avoid it. No legit business or investment will tell you to invest money for them to double it for you, it doesn't work that way In any legit business.

[leea-1334]

I barely ever use that site, i have no need for it. I think i went once to download the whitepaper or something, or to do a quick glimpse at other wallets available. As for your question, about where to learn about Bitcoin, the answer is obvious: Bitcointalk

You see, actual newbies will sadly land into bitcoin.com, if they aren't savvy enough to distinguish a legit site from a deface, they are even less to notice .com to .org

Yes,,, I know how it works and I know it is not often used, but still everyone must have seen it at least once and used it to see the whitepaper, google still brings it up as an early hit on search results.

Bitcointalk is where people learn about Bitcoin at a second or even third stage, but I guess the scene and search results have changed since I last knew as a newbie in 2016-2017 

[noormcs5]

Everyone should SHA-256 checkcums and PGP signatures against anything they have downloaded since the hack happened, otherwise you may have installed compromised wallets which generate addresses that belong to the attacker. Anything is possible if you are able to successfully make a man-in-the-middle attack giving you access to the servers to upload any malware you want.

I think Bitcoin.org team has restorer the access because I just visit the site and there was no doubling scheme. They should make thier security more tight so such hacks does  not happen in future.

[sam00]

Everyone should SHA-256 checkcums and PGP signatures against anything they have downloaded since the hack happened, otherwise you may have installed compromised wallets which generate addresses that belong to the attacker. Anything is possible if you are able to successfully make a man-in-the-middle attack giving you access to the servers to upload any malware you want.

I think Bitcoin.org team has restorer the access because I just visit the site and there was no doubling scheme. They should make thier security more tight so such hacks does  not happen in future.

I can also confirm that I can go visit all subpages of the website without my antivirus going off or without any missing page errors popping up. I din't see the scam/doubling scheme before when I visited the site but some pages definitely weren't avaiable.

[Imran232]

Honestly speaking, I don't care if this site is hacked or not. In 2018, any website, app, or bot that promises to double our bitcoin is clearly a scam in my opinion.Because at the time, bitcoin doubler sire and telegram bot were extremely popular.They doubled users' money in 24 hours, 48, 72, 96, even 1 week. That was a super scammy hype. Lots of people have been scammed by them. Well, in that case, I am one of them. I got payments twice, but then I lost everything. Well, it was a bad moment. But that time, I got a lesson that there is no one who will give you money for free. If someone offers, then stay away from him. Because he has come to loot you. By the way, thanks for the warning. And you say one thing, which I agree with: SCAM IS SCAM.

[faithupgrade]

ok site is hacked.. i wish they did not upload links to malicious bitcoin wallets

[ilovealtcoins]

The site was hacked and the stupidest thing was that greedy people sent them more than 17,000 dollars expecting double profits.
By the way I want to know what is the new Bitcoin website?

[DdmrDdmr]

It’s still surprises me that the site still has not made an official announcement stating that everything is under control, leaving people to speculate as to whether the site is still in jeopardy or clean as a whistle.

Going over Cøbras’s tweets, he does mention that:

Nope, nothing. None of my accounts seem compromised. Server is fine too (it wasn't even getting traffic during the hack). The attackers just seem to have exploited some flaw in the DNS.

See: https://twitter.com/CobraBitcoin/status/1440918129165602817 (and read the contextual comments on the thread)

The above was stated on the 23rd, the same day that the events took place, and is not adamant on the issue being 100% resolved for sure (I mean the possibility of anything beyond the modal doubler), although seemingly there was nothing more. Nevertheless, a pinned message here and there (Twitter & site) would seem necessary to dissipate any doubts.

<...> By the way I want to know what is the new Bitcoin website?

? ? ?

[Em00n01]

Lol.... They should try something different. It's an old scam model . Only stupid greedy people will fall on a victim to it. Anyway, just now when i visit the website saw everything is under control.