4chan is back online after nearly two weeks in the dark. The site went down following a major security breach, and according to its administrators, chronic underfunding made recovery slower than expected. Now, with limited functionality restored, 4chan is pointing fingers—at both hackers and its own financial strain.
4chan hackers targeted outdated systems
The incident began on April 14, when an attacker reportedly used a UK IP address to upload a malicious PDF that breached 4chan’s servers. This exploit gave the hacker access to key database tables and large chunks of the site’s source code. Among the leaked data were internal lists of site moderators and so-called “janitors.” To contain the breach, 4chan’s team shut everything down.
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Financial stress slowed the fix
4chan’s team didn’t mince words: the site’s been “starved of money for years.” The platform has long struggled with advertisers and payment services pulling support, often under public pressure. That lack of funding left the team with limited technical support and outdated infrastructure—prime conditions for a breach and a slow recovery.
4chan is back, but not at full strength
As of April 27, the site is partially restored. Users can browse the front page and most boards, but features like PDF uploads remain disabled. The Flash board is still offline, and some posting features, including image uploads and thumbnails, are only partially working. The team says they’re still restoring systems one step at a time.
A platform with no safety net
This isn’t the first time 4chan’s shoestring budget has come back to haunt it. Without major advertisers or mainstream support, it relies heavily on donations and community-driven funding. But in the face of modern cyber threats, that model leaves little room for error—or protection.
No retreat, no surrender
Despite the damage, 4chan’s administrators say they won’t abandon the site. “No other website can replace it, or this community,” they wrote in an update. “No matter how hard it is, we are not giving up.” For better or worse, they plan to keep 4chan online—even if it means limping forward on a worn-out engine.
