Rumor: Ubisoft Just Lost 900GB of Data in Massive 'MongoBleed' Hack

NewsRumor Mill
Written By NLM Team

It looks like Ubisoft might be finding out the hard way that "owning things" is actually quite important after all.

If you thought your holiday hangover was bad, spare a thought for the IT department at Ubisoft right now. Reports are circulating that the French publishing giant has been hit by a massive security breach, with hackers allegedly making off with a treasure trove of internal data. The leak, which has yet to be officially confirmed by Ubisoft, reportedly spans decades of the company's history and includes everything from ancient source code to assets for unreleased games. I always knew those Watch Dogs games were a documentary.

The "MongoBleed" Mess

The alarm was first raised by user Zephryss on X (formerly Twitter), who claims that hackers exploited a vulnerability known as "MongoBleed" to gain temporary access to Ubisoft's internal systems. According to the rumor, attackers had free rein inside the servers for roughly 48 hours.

That is an eternity in hacker time.

During this window, they allegedly exfiltrated about 900GB of data. The haul supposedly includes source code for "all Ubisoft products from the 1990s to the present day," covering games, the Uplay launcher, and internal development tools. The leak reportedly involves four different hacker groups working in connection with one another. They are currently threatening to release the data, including materials for upcoming titles and remakes, if a ransom isn't paid.

A Grain of Salt (and 900 Gigabytes)

I have to play the skeptic for a second here. While 900GB sounds like a lot of text files, in the world of modern game development, it is practically a rounding error. As one user on X pointed out, 900GB "wouldn't be even half of a modern Ubisoft project". If they really stole assets spanning 30 years, that file size feels suspiciously small.

It is possible they only grabbed code and documentation rather than full art assets, which would explain the size, but until we see files in the wild, this remains firmly in the "rumor" pile.

The Irony is Palpable

Naturally, the internet is having a field day with this. You might remember a certain Ubisoft executive famously telling players they need to "become comfortable not owning their games". Well, the karma police arrived swiftly. Players are flooding social media with the sentiment that maybe Ubisoft should get comfortable not owning their source code.

Others are less sympathetic about the potential loss of work, joking that the hackers probably spent 48 hours just trying to find anything worth stealing. It is harsh, but when you have spent the last few years releasing what the internet affectionately calls "Ubislop," you don't get a lot of sympathy when your digital house gets robbed.

I will be keeping an eye on this one. If the hackers make good on their threat, we might be about to see the most detailed Assassin's Creed roadmap in history.

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NLM Team
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