---
title: "Reddit security incident"
description: "What the retained public evidence establishes about the Reddit incident, its attack path, impact, and response."
incident_type: "Cybersecurity incident"
status: "active"
last_modified: "2026-09-19"
canonical_url: "https://www.ally.security/incidents/reddit-security-incident-2023"
markdown_url: "https://www.ally.security/incidents/reddit-security-incident-2023.md"
stix_url: "https://www.ally.security/incidents/reddit-security-incident-2023/stix.json"
---

# Reddit security incident

A targeted phishing site copied Reddit’s intranet gateway and captured one employee’s credentials and second-factor token. The attacker accessed internal documents, code, dashboards, business systems, and limited contact information for employees and company contacts.

Last modified Sep 19, 2026 · 1 source

## Summary

- **Environment:** Social media
- **Operational impact:** The attacker accessed internal documents, code, dashboards, business systems, and limited contact information for employees and company contacts.
- **Financial impact:** No financial figure is established by the reviewed source evidence

## What happened

In 2023, Reddit experienced an incident in its social media environment. The retained source describes the attack path as follows: A targeted phishing site copied Reddit’s intranet gateway and captured one employee’s credentials and second-factor token. [1](#source-1)

The documented consequence was: The attacker accessed internal documents, code, dashboards, business systems, and limited contact information for employees and company contacts. [1](#source-1)

## Impact

- Documented impact: The attacker accessed internal documents, code, dashboards, business systems, and limited contact information for employees and company contacts. [1](#source-1)
- No financial loss, ransom amount, recovery cost, or regulatory penalty is established by the reviewed source evidence.

## Timeline

### February 5, 2023 — Documented public update

The [We had a security incident. Here's what we know.](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/10y427y/we_had_a_security_incident_heres_what_we_know/) records the incident facts used in this briefing. [1](#source-1)

### September 19, 2026 — Briefing updated

This briefing was last reviewed and updated on September 19, 2026.

## Threat Group & Attack Vector

The retained source describes the attack path as follows: A targeted phishing site copied Reddit’s intranet gateway and captured one employee’s credentials and second-factor token. The canonical record does not add intrusion steps beyond those supported by the source. [1](#source-1)

### Actors

- No threat actor group has been identified in the reviewed public evidence.

### TTPs

- [T1566 — Phishing](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1566/) — mapped from the cited behavior. [1](#source-1)

## Response

The employee self-reported the phishing event; Reddit removed the attacker’s access and began an internal investigation. [1](#source-1)

This account is bounded to [We had a security incident. Here's what we know.](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/10y427y/we_had_a_security_incident_heres_what_we_know/). Details absent from that evidence are left unresolved rather than inferred. [1](#source-1)

## Assets

[Download the case-scoped STIX 2.1 bundle](<https://www.ally.security/incidents/reddit-security-incident-2023/stix.json>)

## Sources

Primary source records used to research this incident.

<a id="source-1"></a>

### We had a security incident. Here's what we know.

official · Reddit

<https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/10y427y/we_had_a_security_incident_heres_what_we_know/>

<details>
<summary>Evidence ledger</summary>

Review the supporting structured claims.

1. **Resulted In · 95% confidence · current**  
   Reddit security incident: The employee self-reported the phishing event; Reddit removed the attacker’s access and began an internal investigation.
2. **Affected Organization · 100% confidence · current**  
   Reddit security incident: Reddit
3. **Resulted In · 100% confidence · current**  
   Reddit security incident: The reviewed source documents the reddit security incident involving Reddit.
4. **Used Attack Technique · 90% confidence · current**  
   Reddit security incident: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1566/
5. **Resulted In · 95% confidence · current**  
   Reddit security incident: The attacker accessed internal documents, code, dashboards, business systems, and limited contact information for employees and company contacts.
6. **Occurred At · 100% confidence · current**  
   Documented public update: 2023-02-05
7. **Resulted In · 95% confidence · current**  
   Reddit security incident: A targeted phishing site copied Reddit’s intranet gateway and captured one employee’s credentials and second-factor token.

</details>