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phpBB Forum Down After Defacement 49

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @02:13PM

kv9 writes "The phpBB forum has been closed down after the host was cracked into, apparently because of an AWStats hole. Several blogs have been attacked using the same method. Commentary on Netcraft, The Reg and SecurityFocus"

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- Re:Meanwhile (Score:5, Informative)
  
  by isn't my name ( 514234 ) writes: <slash@@@threenorth...com> on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @02:24PM (#11609355)
  
  Perl forum still up and running. Conclusion? Obvious.
  
  It says they write more careful--or less widespread--perl.
  
  The awstats exploit that was used here makes use of poorly written perl that failed to validate user input. Of course, had you read the article, you would know that.
  
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  - Re:Meanwhile (Score:1)
    
    by DikSeaCup ( 767041 ) writes:
    
    Of course your comment about "poorly written perl" could be more general.
    As an IT professional, it puts me in a constant state of amazement when I hear about yet another buffer overrun.
    - - Re:Lies, damn lies, pure fud (Score:1)
        
        by Haeleth ( 414428 ) writes:
        
        OK, smartass, show me just ONE example of buffer overrun in Perl. Just ONE. Put it up or shut up!
        
        Okay, smartarse, show me just ONE SENTENCE in his post where he made any comment that implys that Perl is given to buffer overflows.
        
        No, tell you what, I'll save you the trouble:
        Of course your comment about "poorly written perl" could be more general. As an IT professional, it puts me in a constant state of amazement when I hear about yet another buffer overrun.
        Since you appear to be unable to parse this perf
        
        Re:Lies, damn lies, pure fud (Score:1)
        
        by Malek the Damned ( 694215 ) writes:
        
        Turn Strict off and try it again, buddy... =)
    - Re:Meanwhile (Score:4, Insightful)
      
      by wizbit ( 122290 ) writes: on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @02:41PM (#11609555)
      
      It's not a buffer overflow, it's poor use of the open command in perl and hideously bad security practice to allow that command's arguments to a) contain practically any arbitrary value, and furthermore b) be passed from any browser that can find the script location. But this is why we chroot jail CGI scripts and avoid stupid use of system calls.
      
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      - Re:Meanwhile (Score:1)
        
        by DikSeaCup ( 767041 ) writes:
        
        Didn't mean to imply that it was a buffer overrun, just that there's a lot of code out there that can be considered "poorly written".
        Course, I shouldn't really knock it - I'm not a programmer (I just make things go).
  - Re:Meanwhile (Score:2, Informative)
    
    by JFitzsimmons ( 764599 ) writes:
    
    Pfft... it says right in the slashdot summary that the cause of the security flaw was AWStats, not the forums themself (or the php language itself, which far too many people have needless grudges against). I assure you, there are plenty of secure php pages out there, and plenty of insecure perl pages out there. It depends on the coder.
    - OT But... (Score:2)
      
      by macdaddy ( 38372 ) * writes:
      
      I like the tutorial. I'll have to point that out to some folks I just switched over.
Not phpBB -- Just their server. (Score:5, Informative)

by Ahnteis ( 746045 ) writes: on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @02:22PM (#11609339)

It's sad that most sites are posting this with a headline that seems to indicate that phpBB is the problem. The SERVER was hacked through OTHER software, not phpBB. (I know I was worried about my sites until I read the article.)

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Worms then.... (Score:1, Interesting)

by djsmiley ( 752149 ) writes:

I wonder how long until a worm comes out to take advantage of this....

its always interested me, from the time my works php site was over run via a googling worm.
And how you always hear that it takes xhrs after a flaw is found, for someone to start using it.
[tt] Learn how to patch! (Score:1)

by CodeRed ( 5676 ) writes:

If they would have properly managed their systems, none of this would have happened.
- Re:They had it coming (Score:1, Insightful)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  Did you even read the article? They exploited AWStats, a Perl script.
Many vulnerable AWStats sites on google (Score:2, Informative)

by lhaeh ( 463179 ) writes:

A coursoury check of google [google.com] suggests that there are many people who haven't patched yet: it lists the version number at the bottom of the statistics page.
AWStats is a very popular tool, google returns likely 4,490 users. This could be as bad as one of the old ISS vulnerabilities. With any luck, the publicity generated by incidents like this one will be a warning to those still running vulnerable version.
- Re:Many vulnerable AWStats sites on google (Score:1)
  
  by javaguy ( 67183 ) writes:
  
  "This could be as bad as one of the old ISS vulnerabilities. "
  
  What's wrong with the International Space Station? ;)
The new 'underbelly' of IT.... (Score:1)

by TeeJS ( 618313 ) writes:

and open source in particular will be keeping up with all of the known holes and their fixes. I subscribe to three different security announcement listserves, and I still didn't hear about a patch for Mambo OS until I went to the forums looking for an answer on a stupid question. If I hadn't gone to the forums (I don't too often) I'd still be unpatched.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but with the diversity in my network I could spend a whole day each week looking for issues on the services I run...
- Re:The new 'underbelly' of IT.... (Score:2)
  
  by macdaddy ( 38372 ) * writes:
  
  This is why I subscribe to the announcement list of all major software packages I use. Or, alternately, I subscribe to the security bulletin list if they offer one. I also chastise the authors when they abuse the announcement list for something that's not an announcement. Yes, it's their list and their software, but they are greatly damaging their program's viability in a security conscious market by making it harder to get timely security bulletins. I don't sort announcement list mail either, or if I d
- How long (Score:1)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  before people finally understand that web developers shouldn't be writing code in any languages lower level than javascript? The security of production mission critical systems shouldn't be put into the hands of Dreamweaver jockeys.
What? (Score:1)

by MrWa ( 144753 ) writes:

What department was this from again?
Fucking Rediculious (Score:2)

by Surye ( 580125 ) writes:

After reading nearly 10 "OMFG HAHAH PHP IS TEH SUCK" comments on a story about a mature perl script with a bug makes me sick. I swear, /. is getting worse. Not that the headline is helping the missleading thoughts...
*shakes head* (Score:2, Insightful)

by Malek the Damned ( 694215 ) writes:

I'm not sure whether it's hilarious or very, very sad that this is just turning into a huge "php sucks, ha ha, use perl instead you n00bs" thread.

It's actually throwing a bad light on perl developers (and I am one, so I'm not flaming here) that they can't even be bothered reading even the _summary_ and see it was the perl function open() in AWstats that got used to exploit the server, not a php script.

Personally, I code in perl and php. I use whichever's right for the task, and like 'em both.

Oh, and I co

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phpBB Forum Down After Defacement 49

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phpBB Forum Down After Defacement

Re:Meanwhile (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Meanwhile (Score:1)

Re:Lies, damn lies, pure fud (Score:1)

Re:Lies, damn lies, pure fud (Score:1)

Re:Meanwhile (Score:4, Insightful)

Re:Meanwhile (Score:1)

Re:Meanwhile (Score:2, Informative)

OT But... (Score:2)

Not phpBB -- Just their server. (Score:5, Informative)

Worms then.... (Score:1, Interesting)

[tt] Learn how to patch! (Score:1)

Re:They had it coming (Score:1, Insightful)

Many vulnerable AWStats sites on google (Score:2, Informative)

Re:Many vulnerable AWStats sites on google (Score:1)

The new 'underbelly' of IT.... (Score:1)

Re:The new 'underbelly' of IT.... (Score:2)

How long (Score:1)

What? (Score:1)

Fucking Rediculious (Score:2)

shakes head (Score:2, Insightful)

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Re:Meanwhile (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Meanwhile (Score:1)

Re:Lies, damn lies, pure fud (Score:1)

Re:Lies, damn lies, pure fud (Score:1)

Re:Meanwhile (Score:4, Insightful)

Re:Meanwhile (Score:1)

Re:Meanwhile (Score:2, Informative)

OT But... (Score:2)

Not phpBB -- Just their server. (Score:5, Informative)

Worms then.... (Score:1, Interesting)

[tt] Learn how to patch! (Score:1)

Re:They had it coming (Score:1, Insightful)

Many vulnerable AWStats sites on google (Score:2, Informative)

Re:Many vulnerable AWStats sites on google (Score:1)

The new 'underbelly' of IT.... (Score:1)

Re:The new 'underbelly' of IT.... (Score:2)

How long (Score:1)

What? (Score:1)

Fucking Rediculious (Score:2)

*shakes head* (Score:2, Insightful)

Related Links Top of the: day, week, month.

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shakes head (Score:2, Insightful)