Lanza Teccie Team

[Jackie H.]

Well done guys-hope you can restore the forum to it's former glory-good luck!!


:party :party :party

[peggy]

Brilliant job, good luck with the rest.:clap :clap :clap

[oleoleole]

Typical teccies, just got back from the pub !!

Ole :giggle

[Elle1971]

Lol Ole :giggle

Seriously though, well done guys.

[Celtygirl]

I would like someone to tell me though, if the hacker actually has my e-mail address. Not at all happy with that aspect of it:rolleyes

[admin]

Hi guys!

Here is Alex, the techy.

First of all I'm very sorry for the attack and I'm going to explain what happened.

The hacker used a known vulnerability of a forum php file called calendar.php. Let's say that he actually is not a hacker but a cracker.
Hackers enter to your system and let you know security holes, they do that because they find that challenging and in fact help system operators to improve security issues. Crackers enter and destroy all the data.

The cracker destroyed the referential integrity of our database, what means that all the posts are still there but in a mess, in order to restore the data we should go post by post manually and set them back to their original threads and forums. As you could imagine that's impossible considering the number of posts we had.

I will try to get and old database in order to loose just 2 or 3 months of posts, but I can't assure anything.

On the other side, I let you know that we are upgrading our forum from 2.2.8 (current version) to 3.6, it means more smilies, no security holes, and better functionality.

I have already set back bawbee account, as the cracker removed all the admin accounts, and we are going to set back all the forums we had.

Since we have to create new forums we can do whatever we want, so if you want to have new forums or change the old ones because you feel that they can be improved you can discuss and give feed back to bawbee.

Regarding your personal information, emails, virus on your computers and so on you don't have to worry, I've been checking everything for two days before writing any feedback to all of you, just to give trustable information. The attack affects only the forum database, this database has been destroyed but not backuped, so nobody has your details. Since the attack hasn't modified any forum file no virus or trojan horse has been installed.

I will keep an eye on that thread just in case you need more feedback.

I know that some of you have posted a lot on the forum, and you have some special titles like Senior member and so on. That information is kept, however if you think something is wrong feed bawbee back and he'll feed me back in order to solve the situation.

Again, I apology in the name of all lanzarote.com team, we thank to you all your effort to keep the forum alive even after such unluckily situation.

For more information about the attack you can visit this link: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109257


Alex

[oleoleole]

Cheers Alex,

Any idea who the hacker is ? Or where they're from or why it struck this site ?

Is it a random thing, or did somebody selectively choose this site ?

Ole

PS, assuming the RI is 'destroyed' , which I take to mean the indexes have been deleted or corrupted, can you not rebuild the indexes ? Or has it actually corrupted the index key data.

[watfordave]

Good to see the Forum up & running again.

I agree with Willh1975 that the info posts are well worth saving, if possible?

However, if Will doesn't appreciate the other threads, (Chatzone, Fun & Games, etc), why the hell does he waste his time looking at them? No response needed Will, just thinking out loud!

[peggy]

It would be nice to start from scratch, not so many "departments" we need people to ask questions. Then fine tune it from there.

[StevePB]

Help.

I got a couple of pop up saying I had a PM. I pressed ok ok etc but could / didn't get it.

Did someone send one or is the system still playing up. how do I access them?

Steve

[peggy]

I sent you 2 but deleted one :blush
Look at the bottom of the page it says private messages, click on there. I found 2 in my user cp when the site returned.:sigh

[StevePB]

Actually I got both Peggy, thanks to your guidance. Look forward to more of your sense of humour.

[admin]

Originally posted by oleoleole

PS, assuming the RI is 'destroyed' , which I take to mean the indexes have been deleted or corrupted, can you not rebuild the indexes ? Or has it actually corrupted the index key data. [/b]

Hi again,

It is not a corruption on the indexes, is just an information lost. Posts are organized in three tables: forums (with forum id), threads (with thread id and forum id) and posts (with posts id and thread id). Many registers have been deleted, so there are threads pointing to a not any more existing parent forum, and the same for posts.

We are still working on that, it seems we are going to be able to recover a not corrupted copy of the database, however the last 2 or 3 months of posts are going to be lost.

Regarding the hackers, I really think they don't focuse on lanzarote.com, they should be people looking for vulnerabilities around, and if they find one, they'll exploit it.

Will keep you up to date.

Alex

[oleoleole]

Oh Eck !!!

If it's deleted parent key data then it must have circumvented the DBMS (Assess ?), so sounds like it's well stuffed and as you say the only way back is a backup.

Anyway I'm sure it's keeping you busy.

Cheers Alex - Ole

[admin]

Hi again,

You'll see on the forum main page the posts I've been able to recover.

Since the forum table data was deleted I wasn't able to get the original forum titles.

I would be very grateful if Bawbee or whoever wanting to help to post something on this thread letting me know which forum title should I use instead of Foro230, Foro222, Foro221, Foro213, Foro204 and Foro203.

I will update the titles and then I'll try to migrate the forum to the new version 3.6 keeping the recovered posts.

If you manage to give me the titles today I hope to have the new version working by tomorrow.

Alex

[watfordave]

Hi Alex,

There were lots of "sections" & "sub-sections".

There was a "section" called "FUN & GAMES". "Sub-sections" of this were "FANTASY FOOTBALL"(FORO221) & "JOKES"(FORO222).

There were sections on PDC, PB, CT, & OTHER AREAS. FORO230 looks like it belongs in the CT section.

There was a "section" called "CHATZONE" This contained a few "sub-sections", one of which was "CHATROOM", FORO204 was is in this. FORO203 was also in "CHATZONE" but I cant remember what the section was called.

I hope this makes sense & is of help.

Could you put my "Lanza Liga" post from today into the "Lanza Liga 2006/2007 section please?

[sheik]

Hi Alex

From what I can recall.............

203 - Chatzone

204 - Chatroom - sub section of Chatzone


213 - no posts???

221 - Trivia Quiz/Lanza Liga - sub section of Fun´n´games

222 - Jokes - sub section of Fun´n´games

230 - Lanzarote Chat

Test from admin

[admin]

Hi there,

After receiving feed back from Bawbee about problems when trying to post and when using private messages, I've find out that the new version of the forum (3.6) needs at least php 4.3.3 to work properly.

Our server had the version 4.3.2, is why we have decided to rent a new server, which besides is faster and have a better version of MySQL database.

You'll notice that the forum URL has changed, right now is forum.lanzarote.com, that's necessary till I migrate lanzarote.com site to the new server, right now www.lanzarote.com is in one server and forum.lanzarote.com is in another one.

Anyway, if you prefer for the future forum.lanzarote.com instead of www.lanzarote.com/forum we can leave it. As you wish.

I think that everything is going to work smoothly from now on, however if you find some problems just feed Bawbee back and he'll feed me back.

I understand that most of you will be disappointed with the lost of information, so do I. However I've managed to recover the user information, honestly is one of the things that most worried me, as you now the number of posts and the titles are some kind of homage to the old users...

Again let me apology in the name of lanzarote.com team, we have taken proper measures to avoid such situation in the future.

Thanks for your understanding.

Alex

[brenda]

Am so glad the forum is back and commend you all for your hard work to restore this forum for all that love Lanzarote. The people that cannot be on the island but love it all the same and rely on Bawbee to give us on going information, only a few years before I retire, sell my house and live where I want to - Lanzarote!

[Bruce]

Well done Alex, just got back from Lanza today and it was good to see the forum up and running

Bruce