Ethical Hacking News
Red Hat's GitLab instance was breached, exposing the data of 21,000 Nissan customers. The breach highlights the importance of robust cybersecurity measures in place to protect sensitive data and customer relationships.
Red Hat's GitLab instance was compromised, exposing sensitive data of over 21,000 Nissan customers.The breach involved the theft of approximately 570GB of data, including personal details and sales-related information.The Crimson Collective claimed to have stolen data from Red Hat's private GitHub repositories.Nissan reported that around 21,000 customer records were affected in the breach.Red Hat stated that its supply chain remains secure, but the breach did not affect other services or products.
Red Hat's reputation as a leader in software development and technology management has taken a significant hit following the revelation that its GitLab instance had been compromised, resulting in the exposure of sensitive data belonging to over 21,000 Nissan customers. The breach, which was discovered in October 2025, exposed personal details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, partial email addresses, and sales-related information for the Japanese carmaker's customers.
The breach was carried out by a group known as the Crimson Collective, who claimed to have stolen approximately 570GB of data from Red Hat's private GitHub repositories. This data included 28,000 projects and around 800 Customer Engagement Reports (CERs), which often contain sensitive information such as infrastructure details, configurations, and tokens that attackers could exploit to target customers' networks.
According to the Crimson Collective, they gained access to a self-managed GitLab instance used by Red Hat Consulting. This instance contained sample code, internal communications, and project specifications for Nissan's dealerships. The group claimed that they had warned Red Hat about their activities but were ignored.
The breach was made public when the Crimson Collective shared on a Telegram channel a full file tree, CER list, and screenshots as proof of their success. These files included references to major banks, telecoms, airlines, and public-sector organizations such as Citi, Verizon, Siemens, Bosch, JPMC, HSBC, Merrick Bank, Telstra, Telefonica, and even mentioned the U.S. Senate.
Red Hat responded by stating that protecting systems and data is a top priority for the company. However, they noted that the breach does not affect its other services or products, and that its supply chain remains secure. They also pointed out that no financial data or additional customer records were affected in the breach.
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. received a report from Red Hat regarding the unauthorized access to their data server, which had resulted in some customer information being leaked. Nissan disclosed that the compromised data included names, addresses, phone numbers, partial email addresses, and sales-related information for around 21,000 customers of Nissan Fukuoka Sales.
The company noted that they have immediately reported the incident to the Personal Information Protection Commission and are directly contacting customers whose personal information may have been leaked. They also stated that there is no evidence that the leaked data has been misused so far but urged customers to remain vigilant for suspicious calls or mail.
In a statement, Nissan emphasized that they take this incident very seriously and plan to strengthen their monitoring of subcontractors as well as enhance their information security measures further. The company also expressed deep apologies to their customers for any inconvenience caused by the breach.
The Red Hat GitLab breach serves as a stark reminder of the importance of robust cybersecurity measures in place, especially for organizations with sensitive data and customer relationships. It highlights the need for companies like Nissan to ensure that their subcontractors are adhering to the highest standards of security and data protection.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/The-Red-Hat-GitLab-Breach-A-Data-Exposure-of-Epic-Proportions-ehn.shtml
https://securityaffairs.com/186048/data-breach/red-hat-gitlab-breach-exposes-data-of-21000-nissan-customers.html
https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/tr-crimson-collective-a-new-threat-group-observed-operating-in-the-cloud/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/crimson-collective-hackers-target-aws-cloud-instances-for-data-theft/
Published: Thu Dec 25 06:08:24 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
