Target Employees Confirm Massive 860GB Source Code Leak Is Real
The breach first came to light in early January 2026, when a threat actor published a 14MB preview of stolen repositories on Gitea, a self-hosted software development platform. This sample was merely the tip of the iceberg, serving as an advertisement for a gargantuan 860GB dataset allegedly containing the retailer's core business logic and internal documentation.
While Target initially remained tight-lipped, multiple staff members with direct knowledge of the company’s infrastructure have since verified that the leaked materials, which reference internal development servers, senior engineers by name, and custom CI/CD pipelines, are genuine.
For cybersecurity admins and planners, such a leak is far more persistent than a standard theft of personally identifiable customer or account info. Possessing basically the blueprints of a company's software allows bad actors to conduct deep, offline analysis to find hidden vulnerabilities. By studying how Target's systems process transactions, manage inventory, and handle data, hackers can craft targeted exploits that are much harder to detect with standard security tools. The leaked data also reportedly includes internal connection strings and API keys, which could act as a skeleton key for unauthorized entry into third-party services used by the retailer.
In an emergency lockdown following the report, Target reportedly moved the company’s internal Git server, `git.target.com`, behind a mandatory VPN to prevent further external access. This move has raised uncomfortable questions within the IT community regarding why such a critical repository was accessible from the public internet in the first place.
Some researchers have suggested a possible link to a workstation compromised by the infostealer malware (similar to the one that attacked Discord accounts) in September last year, though a definitive connection to the source code theft has not yet been established.
As the 860GB archive is shopped around underground forums by the mystery threat actor, Target currently faces the monumental task of patching this serious breach.
