Hackers Leak 30K Ticketmaster Barcodes, Share Counterfeit Tutorial

Following news that the hacker group Shinyhunters reportedly has access to billions of dollars worth of tickets — including 440,000 to Taylor Swift shows — the Ticketmaster hackers have now reportedly leaked 30,000 ticket barcodes.

Hackread.com, who first reported that the hacker group had access to these tickets, said this latest data leak includes ticket barcodes to various artists’ shows, including Pearl Jam, Sammy Hagar, Stevie Nicks, and Steve Miller Band, as well as tours like Usher’s “Past Present Future Tour,” P!nk’s “Summer Carnival,” Aerosmith’s “Peace Out Farewell Tour,” Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s “Love Earth Tour,” Alanis Morissette’s “The Triple Moon tour,” Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Unlimited Love Tour,” and Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Bands’ 2024 Tour. Several Cirque du Soleil tickets were also leaked.

“You now have to reset 30K more tickets,” the threat actor warned Ticketmaster. “Pay us $2m or we will leak the mail and e-ticket barcodes for all your events.”

Hackread.com inputted the information from the leak into ChatGPT-4o to analyze a small sample and found that the data includes unique barcode values, event details — including start time, event ID, and venue details — sales order information, seating information, venue information, and user and session information. The risks and implications of this leak can lead to barcode duplication, where fraudsters can create counterfeit tickets, print them, and sell the duplicate barcodes to unsuspecting buyers.

Additionally, the leaked barcodes can lead to a loss of revenue for Ticketmaster and event organizers, overcrowding and security risks, and verification challenges, ChatGPT found.

The hackers also shared a DIY step-by-step tutorial on the forum, showcasing how to make your own printable tickets based on the leaked information. The tutorial includes a YouTube video, TicketFast artwork guidelines, and a link to the Ticketmaster site that explains printing guidelines for their tickets.

Last week, it was reported that the hackers posted on “the infamous cybercrime and hacker platform” Breach Forums.

“To celebrate the 4th of July we present to you 440k Taylor Swift Eras game tickets, and instead of her tour she’s performing in front of congress,” the forum posting from ShinyHunters said.

The post claimed it had access to a total of 193 million barcodes, with close to half a million for upcoming shows on Swift’s Eras Tour. They estimated that these barcodes are worth around $22 billion — a “face value” figure for the tickets. The group also claimed it demanded Ticketmaster/Live Nation a ransom of $8 million — an increase from their previous ask of $1 million, or the data would be sold to the highest bidder.

The stolen data reportedly includes:

• 980 million sales orders
• 680 million orders detail
• 1.2 billion party lookup records
• 440 million unique email addresses
• 4 million uncased and deduped records
• 560 million AVS (Address Verification System) detail records
• 400 million encrypted credit card details with partial information

While this data is not confirmed as accurate, previous information shared by ShinyHunters proved to be true; earlier this month, Ticketmaster began contacting users impacted by the confirmed data breach, which occurred between April 2 and May 18, 2024.

Over the weekend, Ticketmaster rejected these claims, telling Hackread.com in a statement that their SafeTix technology prevents theft, as it is frequently refreshing the barcode. Additionally, the ticketing giant discredited claims of a ransom offer.

“Ticketmaster’s SafeTix technology protects tickets by automatically refreshing a new and unique barcode every few seconds so it cannot be stolen or copied,” Ticketmaster told the publication. “This is just one of many fraud protections we implement to keep tickets safe and unassailable. Some outlets are inaccurately reporting about a ransom offer. We were never engaged for a ransom and did not offer them money.”

In a counter-statement, the hackers Sp1d3rHunters pointed out that the company did not mention anything regarding the physical copies of tickets.

“Our response to Ticketmaster’s claims is Ticketmaster lies to the public and says barcodes can not be used,” the hackers said. “Physical ticket types are Ticketfast, e-ticket, and mail. These are printed and cannot be automatically refreshed.”

Ticketmaster has not responded to these newly-leaked barcodes. Ticket News has reached out for comment.