Comcast Xfinity Accounts HACKED

UPDATE: new information as of Dec. 2023, including a SECOND confirmed breach of Xfinity accounts. Cybersecurity expert Drayton Mayers of TeamLogic IT Memphis explains what happened and what EVERY Xfinity customer should be doing NOW to protect themselves.

Mayers wrote the following and gave me permission to publish it as a #WiseWarning to all Comcast Xfinity customers:

During the week of Jan. 9, 2023, a number of Comcast customers logged into their Xfinity email accounts only to discover that they had been hacked. The source of these widespread attacks seems to be an exploit that allows an attacker to bypass Xfinity two-factor authentication (2FA) for Xfinity accounts (Editor’s note: two-factor authentication is a security measure in which someone uses two factors to access accounts, like a password plus a text with a one-time passcode).

Hackers appear to be using a privately circulated tool that bypasses the one-time-passcode (OTP) used in 2FA. Essentially, your account will not send the 2FA code to you. Instead, the hackers will get it, cutting you out of the loop.

First, the attackers compromise an Xfinity email account by using stolen passwords from the Dark Web. From there, they log in with the stolen passwords and use the private 2FA bypass tool to get around phone verification.

After that, the password is reset, and any backup or secondary emails are changed to one the attacker controls.

Once they have access to the Xfinity email, hackers can use this email to attempt to password reset other services with the ‘Forgot my Password’ feature.

They’ve been observed using this method to compromise DropBox, EverNote and even cryptocurrency exchange accounts such as Coinbase and Gemini.

If you have a Comcast email account, we recommend that you immediately update your password and check the recovery email and 2FA information you have on file. Reach out to Comcast Xfinity support if necessary. It is also a good idea to review your other accounts and services for compromise.

A few important things to note in these attacks:

• 2FA was not enough. The hackers bypassed it.
• Those who regained access to their accounts did so because they noticed a change in 2FA by monitoring their email accounts.
• The accounts were originally compromised via “credential stuffing” which uses Leaked Passwords found on the Dark Web

These are all common pain points for which our third-party security assessments identify.

Regulatory, news and Comcast sources confirmed Xfinity accounts were breached once again in October 2023. The Verge leaked this breach notice from the Office of the Maine Attorney General. It disclosed that more than 35 million people were impacted in a breach of Xfinity systems between Oct. 16 and Oct. 19. Comcast said in a statement released Dec. 18 “…there was unauthorized access to its internal systems” as a result of a vulnerability in its third-party networking and cloud computing software. The breach obtained customer information, including “…usernames and hashed passwords…names, contact information, last four digits of social security numbers, dates of birth and/or secret questions and answers.”

Not only does TeamLogic IT Memphis provide consultation and training on the weaknesses in multi-factor authentication (MFA), but it also utilizes alerts to catch compromised accounts as soon as it happens. Its services also scan your environment for accounts using leaked passwords that have been found on the Dark Web.

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