Imagine logging into your decade-old tactical shooter for a quick ranked grind, only to find your account bloated with 2 billion R6 Credits—enough to buy out the entire marketplace a million times over. That’s exactly what hit Rainbow Six Siege players on December 27, 2025, kicking off one of the most chaotic breaches in live-service gaming history.
As of December 28, servers remain indefinitely offline. Ubisoft confirmed a full rollback of transactions since 11:00 AM UTC on the 27th, explicitly stating no player bans for spending the illicit credits. The breach stemmed from a multi-group attack exploiting a MongoDB vulnerability (CVE-2025-14847, aka “MongoBleed”), granting hackers admin-level access to backend systems, player inventories, ban tools, and reportedly Ubisoft’s internal Git repositories—exposing source code from the 1990s to present projects.
What Exactly Happened: The Timeline of Chaos
It started subtly enough. Around midday UTC on December 27, players across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox began reporting anomalies. Accounts flooded with 2 billion R6 Credits (retailing at about $13 million USD equivalent), millions in Renown, thousands of Alpha Packs, and ultra-rare cosmetics like Glacier skins and developer exclusives—items no legit player could access.
Then the trolls emerged. Hackers hijacked the public ban ticker (disabled in a prior update, but still manipulable), spamming it with lyrics from “Wasn’t Me,” jabs at Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot (“on Epstein’s island?”), and mock bans for “toxic behavior” targeting staff accounts—even official Ubisoft ones.
- 11:00 AM UTC: Mass credit injections peak. Marketplace goes haywire as players (some gleefully, others panicked) snap up everything.
- ~12:30 PM UTC: Ubisoft’s first post: “We’re aware of an incident… teams working on resolution.”
- ~3:50 PM UTC: Servers and Marketplace intentionally shut down globally. No ETA.
- ~8:50 PM UTC: Major update—no bans for credit spending, full rollback underway, ban ticker messages not from Ubisoft, unrelated ShieldGuard wave.
By December 28 morning, Downdetector spiked, X chatter exploded (thousands of posts), and security researchers like VX-Underground linked it to MongoBleed: an unauthenticated remote memory leak in exposed MongoDB instances, dumping creds and keys for deeper pivots.
The Multi-Group Attack: Not One Hack, But a Cyber Free-for-All
This wasn’t a lone wolf. Reports from VX-Underground, BleepingComputer, and dark web chatter point to four distinct groups:
- Group 1 (Chaos Crew): Breached a Siege live-service endpoint for admin control. Injected credits/Renown, unlocked cosmetics, toggled bans. Motive: pure disruption and lulz.
- Group 2 (Code Raiders): Used MongoBleed on a Ubisoft MongoDB instance to pivot into internal Git repos. Claimed terabytes of source code exfiltrated (1990s titles to unreleased). No public dumps yet—extortion likely.
- Group 3 (Data Extorters): Separate MongoBleed hit, allegedly snagged player data for ransom. Unverified, but fits pattern.
- Group 4 (Disinfo?): Claims the code breach predates Siege hack, using it as cover. Tensions rising between groups on forums.
From my years tracking gaming breaches (remember the 2023 Insomniac leak or Egregor’s 2020 Ubisoft hit?), this coordination screams opportunism. MongoBleed’s PoC dropped recently; Ubisoft’s exposed DB was low-hanging fruit.
| Group | Method | Impact | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Live-service exploit | Credits, bans, cosmetics | Rolled back |
| 2 | MongoBleed → Git pivot | Source code theft | Exfiltrated, no dump |
| 3 | MongoBleed | Player data? | Extortion claims |
| 4 | Unknown | Disinfo/cover | Ongoing chatter |
Technical Deep Dive: How MongoBleed Tore It Open
MongoBleed (CVE-2025-14847) is a critical memory leak in unpatched MongoDB servers. Unauthenticated attackers trigger it remotely, dumping heap contents: API keys, DB creds, session tokens. From there? Lateral movement to Git, inventories, ban APIs.
PoC in wild since early Dec 2025. Ubisoft’s instance? Misconfigured, internet-facing—classic Live-service ops sin. (I’ve audited similar setups; one forgotten auth=0 DB, and it’s game over.)
Hackers didn’t just glitch credits; they mimicked legit admin calls. Transactions logged as “valid,” complicating rollbacks. Ban ticker? Hacked feed, not official—turned off months ago, but endpoints lingered.
Ubisoft’s Response: Containment, Rollbacks, and the No-Bans Pledge
Credit where due: Ubisoft moved fast. Shutdown in ~2 hours, rollback announced same day. Key promises:
- No bans for receiving/spending hack credits. Smart—avoids mass exodus.
- Rollback to 11:00 UTC pre-breach state.
- Ban ticker clarified: Hacker spam, not Ubi.
- Servers offline “indefinitely” for audits.
But silence on source code/player data. No PII confirmation (emails? Payments?). Community fuming—X posts hit 30k+ mentions.
Player Advice (Do This Now):
- Change Ubisoft password + enable 2FA—creds may be compromised.
- Monitor accounts for unauthorized logins (haveitubi.com).
- Avoid login until greenlight.
- Check credit card for fraud if linked.
Player Impact: From Windfall to Wipeout
- Economy nuked: Marketplace prices tanked temporarily; rollbacks erase “free” buys.
- Bans reversed: False positives hit streamers, pros, even Ubi staff.
- Downtime: 24+ hours and counting. Ranked frozen, events paused. (Queue times were bad pre-hack; this is hell.)
- Psych impact: Trust eroded. “Cheaters roam free, but free credits? Instant shutdown,” one X user quipped.
Pros like those in Six Invitational qualifiers? Screwed. Casuals grinding Year 10? Back to square one.
Broader Implications: A Wake-Up for Live-Service Giants
Siege isn’t alone—Escape from Tarkov hit same day. But this exposes systemic rot: Legacy DBs unpatched, Git over net, admin endpoints leaky. (Ubisoft’s 2020 Egregor leak? Déjà vu.)
Lessons for Devs:
- Patch MongoDB yesterday (auth all instances).
- Segment Git from prod DBs.
- Audit ban/inventory APIs quarterly.
- Rollback drills—Ubi nailed this.
For gamers? Demand transparency. No post-mortem in 48 hours? Boycott the store.
When Will Servers Return? Latest Status
As of 12/28 12:00 UTC: Still offline, no ETA. Ubisoftstatus.com shows red; X silent since rollback post. Expect 48-72 more hours for audits—source code breach demands full sweeps.
Watch @Rainbow6Game. Compensation? Likely packs/Renown, but don’t hold breath.
Conclusion: Siege’s Darkest Hour, But Not the End
This multi-group MongoDB-fueled nightmare—credits galore, code swiped, servers dark—marks Siege’s worst breach in 10 years. Ubisoft’s no-bans rollback buys goodwill, but the source code shadow looms. (Extortion incoming?)
From my frontline seats covering hacks like Capcom’s 2020 ransomware, recovery’s possible—but trust? That’s the real casualty. Ubisoft, own the MongoBleed miss, detail the fix, compensate fairly. Players, secure your accounts. Siege endures because it’s Siege. But fix the backend, or the next “incident” ends it.
