Yandex source code repository leaked, unveiling 1,922 search ranking factors
The source code of Russia's leading IT company, Yandex, which is often referred to as the Russian Google, was leaked by attackers.
An anonymous person has uploaded a large archive on a well-known hacking forum containing 44GB of data, revealing the source code of Russia's biggest IT corporation, Yandex, also known as the "Russian Google."
Yandex repositories leaked, it sizes about 44.71GB
The attacker claims that the data was obtained in July 2022. A researcher, Arseniy Shestakov, who has examined the leaked data, states that the archive comprises the contents of a repository and does not contain any additional data. He also mentioned that all the files in the archive are dated February 24, 2022, the day when Russian troops entered Ukraine.
The leaking of source code can pose significant security risks to companies as it can give threat actors access to the company's intellectual property and system information. This can allow attackers to craft tailored security exploits in the future.
According to Shestakov, the leak includes the source code for all major Yandex services, including its search engine, Yandex Maps, AI assistant Alice, Yandex Taxi, Yandex Mail, Yandex Pay, and many other services. However, the researcher claims that the leak does not contain any personal data of users or employees.
Despite the leak, Yandex has emphasized that the company has not been "hacked" as the archive that was leaked only includes code snippets from an internal repository that is different from the current version of the repository.
The leak also reveals the 1,922 ranking factors of Yandex
The leak has exposed 1,922 ranking factors used by Yandex in its search algorithm, as of July 2022. As Martin MacDonald stated on Twitter, this hack is considered as one of the most interesting developments in SEO in recent years.
Alex Buraks, a researcher, has also pointed out the SEO part of the leak, by reinstating that leak lists of all 1922 ranking factors used in Yandex search algorithm.
You probably heard about Yandex, it’s the 4th biggest search engine by market share worldwide. Yesterday proprietary source code of Yandex was leaked.
— Alex Buraks (@alex_buraks) January 27, 2023
The most interesting part for SEO community is: the list of all 1922 ranking factors used in the search algorithm
[🧵THREAD] pic.twitter.com/6x82AAmbON
Yandex source code hacked! Complete list of 1900+ ranking factors can be downloaded here: https://t.co/8yiP0Yo0yk
— Martin MacDonald 🏴🇪🇸🇺🇸🇧🇧 (@searchmartin) January 27, 2023
