IBM Developer Community Website Defaced

IBM developerWorks, a large website hosting developer resources, was defaced last Saturday by an Indonesian hacker who left a message taunting the admin.

The incident was first reported on the Full Disclosure mailinglist and according to the discussion there, most pages under the /developerWorks/ directory were affected.

The message left on the defacement page, entitled "Defaced by Hmei7," reads: "You have been Hacked !!!, not because of your stupidity That's because we love you, and we want to warn you That your web still has large of vulnerability Dear admin, This was not a joke or dream, this is [censored] reality."

In traditional style, the hacker greeted a number of people by their online handles, probably members of the same hacking crew.

Despite being a weekend, IBM webmasters acted quickly and suspended access to the site. Visitors reported being greeted by a "Web site is currently under maintenance" message.

Maciej Gojny, a researcher with Polish security firm Ariko-Security, claims his team informed IBM over seven months ago that several of its websites, including developerWorks, were vulnerable, but their report was not taken seriously.

The attack vector that led to the compromise is not known, but according to IDG, an IBM spokesman said that no data was lost and no passwords were exposed.

IBM developerWorks allows users to register accounts and contribute to the community via the forum, wiki, groups, blogs and other tools provided by the website.

According to IBM, "four million developers and IT professionals in 195 countries use developerWorks each month, with language support in English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish."

The website provides a library of technical documentation, as well as tutorials, how-to articles, trial code, demos, podcasts and other resources.