Twitch confirms security leak, resets users’ stream keys out of caution

Twitch has confirmed that it experienced a security leak and in an act of caution, has reset the stream keys of all of its users.

In a blog post, Twitch explained a malicious third party had accessed data exposed to the internet due to an error in a server configuration change.

“As the investigation is ongoing, we are still in the process of understanding the impact in detail,” the company said.

Twitch also said it had no evidence that the leak exposed users’ login credentials. It said it also didn’t expose full credit card numbers as the company does not store that information.

However, Twitch later said it had reset all of its users’ stream keys out of an abundance of caution. The keys are unique codes that connect a user’s streaming software to their broadcast channel.

Twitch leak exposes source code, creator payouts and more

On 6 October, Video Games Chronicle reported that an anonymous user claimed to have leaked the entirety of Twitch. This included the website’s source code and user payout information.

The user posted a 125GB torrent link to forum website 4chan. They claimed the leak intended to promote disruption and competition in the online video streaming space.

The files reportedly are available to download by the public.

According to the report, the leaked data includes the website’s entire source code. It also included comment history dating back to its earliest versions.

The data also reportedly includes Twitch creator payouts from 2019, Software Development Kits (SDKs) and internal Amazon Web Services (AWS) services, other Twitch properties including IGDB and CurseForge, and an unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios codenamed Vapor.

While the leak reportedly did not expose users’ login credentials, the leak was labelled as “part one”. This suggested more leaked data was incoming.

Because of this, Twitch users are advised to change their passwords and enable two-factor authentication on their accounts to be safe.

Where to find your new Twitch stream key

Due to the reset, Twitch users will note that they now have new stream keys. The key is available in the Stream options of the Creator Dashboard settings.

If you use Twitch Studio, Streamlabs, or the Xbox, PlayStation, and Twitch Mobile apps, you should not need to take any action for your new key to work.

If you use OBS and have connected your Twitch account to it, you also do not need to take any action. However, if your Twitch account is not connected, you will need to manually copy and paste the stream key from the Creator Dashboard into OBS.

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Featured image: Twitch