Brinztech Alert: Vivid Infotech DB Sale ($1k Exclusive) Exposes “Plaintext” MD5 Passwords

Dark Web News Analysis

A threat actor is advertising a database for sale on a prominent hacker forum, claiming it was stolen from Vivid Infotech, an IT and software development company. The database, totaling 184.5 MB, is being offered for $1,000 as an exclusive sale (i.e., to a single buyer).

This is a catastrophic credential and PII breach originating from a B2B (Business-to-Business) service provider. The database allegedly includes:

• User Table: Names, Email Addresses.
• Address Table: Physical Addresses, Names.
• Credentials: MD5-Hashed Passwords.

The “exclusive sale” model indicates the buyer is not a low-level spammer but a sophisticated actor who intends to use this data for a targeted, high-value attack. The most critical vulnerability exposed is the use of MD5 for hashing passwords.

Key Cybersecurity Insights

This alleged data leak presents several immediate, overlapping, and catastrophic threats, amplified by the negligent use of MD5 hashing:

• MD5 Hashing = “Plaintext” Passwords; Catastrophic Credential Leak: This is the most severe technical failure. MD5 is a broken hashing algorithm and is not considered secure for password storage. These “hashed” passwords can be trivially and instantly “cracked” (reversed to plaintext) using widely available tools and “rainbow tables.” This leak is, in effect, a plaintext password breach.
• A “Turnkey” Kit for Mass Credential Stuffing: This is the #1 immediate threat to users. The attacker now has a clean list of emails and their corresponding plaintext-equivalent passwords. This “combolist” will be immediately fed into automated credential stuffing bots to attack all other websites (email, banking, social media, government portals, etc.). Any user who reused their Vivid Infotech password anywhere else is at 100% risk of immediate account takeover.
• “Exclusive Sale” Signals Targeted B2B/Supply Chain Attack: This is the most severe business threat. The $1,000 “single buyer” price means the attacker is buying exclusivity for a surgical attack. Given Vivid Infotech is an IT provider, its “user” list is a “who’s who” of its clients. The buyer will immediately use these credentials to:
  1. Launch BEC/Invoice Fraud: Impersonate Vivid Infotech to its clients (using real names/emails) to authorize fraudulent payments (e.g., “Our banking details have changed…”).
  2. Compromise Client Systems: Use the stolen credentials to log in as clients to their own platforms or to Vivid Infotech’s project portals, escalating access and potentially deploying ransomware.
• Severe Compliance Failure (India’s DPDP Act): As an Indian “Infotech” company, this is a catastrophic and negligent violation of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act. The failure to use “reasonable security safeguards” (MD5 is the opposite) to protect PII exposes the company to a mandatory investigation by the Data Protection Board of India and crippling fines.

Mitigation Strategies

In response to a catastrophic breach involving “plaintext” (MD5) passwords from a B2B provider, immediate “scorched earth” actions are mandatory:

1. For Vivid Infotech (Internal): “Code Red” IR & MANDATE Password Reset. This is a “house on fire” emergency. The company must assume all user passwords are public. Invalidate ALL user passwords across all systems immediately. Force a mandatory password reset for every user and internal employee.
2. For Vivid Infotech (Internal): IMMEDIATE MIGRATION FROM MD5. This is the root cause. Vivid Infotech must immediately migrate its entire password storage system from the broken MD5 algorithm to a modern, salted, and secure hashing standard (e.g., Argon2, scrypt, or at a minimum, bcrypt). Using MD5 in 2025 is an existential-level security failure.
3. For Vivid Infotech’s CLIENTS (External): “Code Red” BEC/Invoice Fraud Alert. This is the most urgent supply chain defense. Vivid Infotech must proactively notify all its clients, warning them of this breach and the extreme, immediate risk of fraudulent invoices or BEC attacks impersonating Vivid Infotech. All payment changes must be verified out-of-band (phone call to a known contact).
4. For ALL Vivid Infotech Users (External): Change ALL Reused Passwords NOW. This is the critical personal defense. Assume your Vivid Infotech password is public. Identify any other online account (especially email, banking, social media, code repositories) where you used the same or a similar password and change it immediately to a new, strong, unique password. Enable MFA everywhere.

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Questions or Feedback? This analysis is based on threat intelligence from a dark web forum. Brinztech provides cybersecurity services worldwide and does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of external claims. For any inquiries or to report this post, please email: contact@brinztech.com