Cross Fire 2016 Data Breach
ObscureIQ Breach Intelligence
Low SeverityWebsite / service breach
Cross Fire (mail.ru) Russian Gaming Forum Breach (2016): 7.7M Player Accounts Including Passwords & DOB Exposed
Chinese first-person shooter game community.
Verified by ObscureIQ Intelligence
17/100Breach Risk Index
3Data Value
25Market Recency
584dSince Breach
Breach Intelligence Summary
Entity: Cross Fire · Actor: Unknown · Sources: 8 references
Attack: Web Application Exploit
Profile: Platform · Online gaming and player community services · Free-to-play first-person shooter platform · Global
Timeline: Breach (2016-08-08) · Indexed (Dec 01, 2024) · Year (2016)
Exposure: 7.7M records · 5 fields: Date of Birth, Email Address, IP Address, Password, Username
Status: Confirmed
Executive Summary
In August 2016, the Russian CrossFire gaming community forum (cfire.mail.ru) was hacked as part of a wave of attacks on mail.ru-hosted vBulletin gaming forums (~27 million accounts total across cfire, parap, and tanks). Attackers exploited SQL-injection flaws in the vBulletin Forumrunner add-on on outdated versions. Exposed data included usernames, email addresses, salted MD5 passwords, IP addresses, and dates of birth (~7.7M unique emails for CrossFire). (Note: this is the Russian mail.ru community forum for CrossFire, not a Chinese platform as previously tagged.)
ObscureIQ assessment: Exposure enables account takeover, fraud, phishing, and harassment. Competitive-game and purchase data can also support item theft and cross-platform targeting.
Breach Impact
The exposure of usernames, emails, salted MD5 passwords, IP addresses, and dates of birth for ~7.7 million players enables credential-stuffing, account-takeover, identity-verification bypass (via DOB), and targeted phishing.
About Cross Fire
Cross Fire (cfire.mail.ru) is the Russian community forum for the popular FPS game CrossFire, hosted on the mail.ru platform. It maintained player forum accounts.
Why They Hold Your Data
Online shooter platforms collect player accounts, emails, purchase history, gameplay activity, device data, and community interactions across live-service gaming workflows.
Recent Developments
In August 2016, cfire.mail.ru was breached as part of a wave of attacks on mail.ru-hosted vBulletin gaming forums (also hitting parap.mail.ru and tanks.mail.ru; ~27 million accounts total). Attackers exploited SQL-injection vulnerabilities in the vBulletin "Forumrunner" add-on on outdated installations.
Data Points Exposed
5 verified field types
Date of Birth High
Email Address
IP Address
Password Critical
Username
Field names are shown in full for clarity and search visibility. Canonical machine keys are emitted only in this page’s structured data.
Exploitation & Downstream Threats
Threat Activity:High
Primary downstream threats:
- Credential stuffing and account takeover against reused passwords (salted MD5)
- Identity verification bypass using DOB
- Targeted phishing using exposed emails
Threat vectors:
- Credential stuffing & account takeover
- Password hash cracking (salted MD5)
- Identity verification bypass
- Phishing & social engineering
Recommended Actions
If you believe your information may be included:
Change Reused Passwords
Update this account and anywhere you reused the password; use a manager.
Enable MFA Everywhere
Turn on multi-factor authentication on email first, then financial accounts.
Report & Recover
If you spot misuse, start an official recovery plan and report fraud.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened in the Cross Fire breach?▾
In August 2016, the Russian CrossFire gaming community forum (cfire.mail.ru) was hacked as part of a wave of attacks on mail.ru-hosted vBulletin gaming forums (~27 million accounts total across cfire, parap, and tanks). Attackers exploited SQL-injection flaws in the vBulletin Forumrunner add-on on…
What data was exposed?▾
Verified fields include Date of Birth, Email Address, IP Address, Password, Username.
What should I do if I was affected?▾
Change reused passwords, enable MFA, and (if identity or financial data is involved) freeze your credit and monitor your accounts.
Sources & References
Every claim on this page is traceable. This breach draws on:
Breach Index
Breach Index
Cross-source
9ghz
Cross-source
BreachDirectory
Cross-source
BreachForums_Official_Index
Cross-source
DataViper.io
Cross-source
Leak-Lookup
ObscureIQ Intelligence
ObscureIQ proprietary analysis
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