BreachForums Reveals Law Enforcement Crackdown Exploiting MyBB 0-Day Vulnerability

BreachForums, a notorious cybercrime marketplace and successor to RaidForums, has confirmed that its platform was the target of a sophisticated law enforcement operation exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability, commonly referred to as a “0-day”, in the MyBB forum software. 

The announcement, signed by the BreachForums administration, follows weeks of speculation and rumors about the site’s sudden outage and potential compromise by global law enforcement agencies.

Shuts Down After Suspected MyBB 0-Day Exploit

According to an official statement released by BreachForums’ administrators, the incident was confirmed around April 15, 2025, after trusted sources revealed that the forum’s infrastructure was subject to infiltration via a MyBB 0-day vulnerability. 

This vulnerability, which had not been previously disclosed or patched at the time of the attack, allowed attackers to potentially bypass standard security controls and gain unauthorized access to the underlying system.

According to reports, it quickly shut down its infrastructure and initiated a complete incident response process.

The administration emphasized that, after a thorough internal audit, “our infrastructure was NOT compromised, and no data was infiltrated.” 

Nevertheless, the team began a deep audit of the MyBB source code and claims to have identified the PHP exploit responsible for the vulnerability.

MyBB, a widely used open-source forum platform written in PHP, has a history of critical vulnerabilities, including those that allow remote code execution (RCE) and privilege escalation. 

In past incidents, attackers have chained together vulnerabilities such as persistent cross-site scripting (XSS) and file write flaws to achieve full server compromise.

For example, an attacker could send a malicious private message exploiting XSS to an administrator, which, when opened, would trigger a file write vulnerability and plant a PHP shell on the server.

While the specific details of the latest 0-day exploit against BreachForums have not been publicly disclosed, the administration’s audit points to a previously unknown PHP exploit in the MyBB codebase. 

Such exploits can allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on the server, potentially granting full control over the forum infrastructure.

Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity Implications

The breach highlights the persistent interest of law enforcement agencies worldwide in disrupting cybercrime marketplaces. 

BreachForums has been a recurring target, with previous takedowns and arrests, including the 2023 arrest of its founder, “Pompompurin” (Conor Brian Fitzpatrick)-leading to repeated shutdowns and revivals of the platform. 

Using a 0-day vulnerability demonstrates the increasing technical sophistication of law enforcement operations targeting high-profile cybercriminal infrastructure.

BreachForums’ administrators have apologized to their community for the lack of communication during the incident, citing the need to prioritize infrastructure security. 

They confirmed that no team members have been arrested and reassured users that their infrastructure remains secure. 

The administration also warned users against engaging with BreachForums clones, labeling them as potential honeypots operated by law enforcement or scammers.

To prevent future incidents, BreachForums is actively working on a complete rewrite of its backend, moving away from the compromised MyBB codebase. The administration urged users to exercise caution and discernment regarding alternative platforms and services.

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