Usernames, email addresses, and encrypted passwords were disclosed as a result of a Plex data breach. The extent of the security breach is unknown, but the corporation is mandating password changes for all users.
Plex servers’ inability to handle the volume of users seeking to utilize them, along with a host of other issues, complicated the situation.
Plex data breach is confirmed
This morning, Plex emailed all users to let them know that “a small subset of data” was accessible to a third party, although it did not specify how many accounts were affected.
“We want you to be aware of an incident involving your Plex account information yesterday. While we believe the actual impact of this incident is limited, we want to ensure you have the right information and tools to keep your account secure.
Yesterday, we discovered suspicious activity on one of our databases. We immediately began an investigation and it does appear that a third-party was able to access a limited subset of data that includes emails, usernames, and encrypted passwords. Even though all account passwords that could have been accessed were hashed and secured in accordance with best practices, out of an abundance of caution we are requiring all Plex accounts to have their password reset. Rest assured that credit card and other payment data are not stored on our servers at all and were not vulnerable in this incident.
We’ve already addressed the method that this third-party employed to gain access to the system, and we’re doing additional reviews to ensure that the security of all of our systems is further hardened to prevent future incursions. While the account passwords were secured in accordance with best practices, we’re requiring all Plex users to reset their password.
Long story short, we kindly request that you reset your Plex account password immediately. When doing so, there’s a checkbox to “Sign out connected devices after password change.” This will additionally sign out all of your devices (including any Plex Media Server you own) and require you to sign back in with your new password. This is a headache, but we recommend doing so for increased security. We have created a support article with step-by-step instructions on how to reset your password here.
Password changes were not being required at the time of writing. Some of those making an attempt, meanwhile, claim that they haven’t been successful.
“Can’t change password due to internal server error”
“I went ahead and logged into my account to change my password. Thing is, that didn’t work. I tried a few times, but when I submit the change password form hangs in there with a spinning icon for about 30 seconds, then I get ‘Internal Server Error. Something went wrong on our end.’”
“I also get an internal server error (500) response when trying to use the password reset feature and sign out of all connected devices.”
Other people are having trouble logging back in even though they were able to change their passwords. For their own servers, many users claim to receive messages such as “Not authorized” or “You do not have access to this server.” While some have had success after logging on and reclaiming the server, others have not.
It seems that Plex has not set up enough extra bandwidth to handle the frenzy of password change attempts. Additionally, the password reset page unexpectedly requests the new password before the old one, which may be the cause of some failures.
Setting up two-factor authentication in your account settings is something Plex advises. Keep in mind that 2FA is not available if you registered using a Google or other account rather than your email address.
In addition to apologizing for the Plex data breach, the firm stated that it is now examining its security.
It’s worth waiting a few hours before trying again if you can’t access your account or change your password (provided you use strong, one-of-a-kind passwords that prevent access to any of your other accounts in the event of a breach).
When a Universal Watchlist function was discovered to allow kids to access prohibited content, Plex last ran into controversy back in April. If you haven’t tried out the platform yet, check out our guide showing how to create a multimedia server with Plex.
