// METHODOLOGY

Email Breach Check

Which breach dataset is searched, how it compares to the alternatives, and what a clean result does not prove.

// What is tested

  • One email address against a catalogue of publicly known data breaches.
  • For each match: the breached service, the date recorded for the breach, the categories of data it exposed, and the number of records where the source reports one.
  • An aggregate view of which categories of data have been exposed across all matches.

// Data sources

XposedOrNot
A free public breach-data API (api.xposedornot.com). The address is passed to it to run the check and is not stored by Vuther.

// Limits

  • This is a lookup against an already-collected catalogue. It is not a dark web scan, and no free service performs one — private marketplaces, closed forums and unpublished breaches are outside the reach of every tool of this kind.
  • XposedOrNot holds a smaller dataset than the largest commercial breach catalogues, notably Have I Been Pwned. A clean result here is weaker evidence than a clean result there.
  • A positive result is reliable information. A negative result is the absence of information, not an all-clear.
  • Breach metadata comes from the source and is inherited as-is, including any errors in dates or record counts.
  • Whether passwords in a given breach were stored in plain text, weakly hashed or properly hashed is usually not reported, so any exposed password should be treated as known.