Math Is Fun Forum

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Server Problems Feb 08

Ouch! It seems that hackers have found a way to get into servers on my hosting company.

It is not know how they do it. But they got into this one, and I have big problems!

I am taking backups, and they will "rebuild" the server, and then I need to reload everything.

ALSO: I have increased security, which means you will all have to re-login (using your normal password)

Rest assured I am working on this!

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

JaneFairfax

Member

Registered: 2007-02-23

Posts: 6,868

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

My friends’ forum board at http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?act=idx experienced the same problem at about the same time yesterday; indeed, all forum boards on the same host address were down for about two hours or so. I wonder if this could be the work of the same hacker(s).

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

It may have been. But non-punbb people have been hacked too: http://forums.powervps.com/showthread.php?t=3344

I am still taking backups. Then the rebuild, which will mean downtime.

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

JaneFairfax

Member

Registered: 2007-02-23

Posts: 6,868

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

And now YouTube appears to be hit!

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

Good lord, yes.

Anyway, backups nearly complete ... I am trying to think what more I need to do before the old setup is lost.

I hope to also do an upgrade to a different "VPS" which is less vulnerable (but costlier).

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

The forum is now on a new server. A few issues still need to be sorted out ... including upgrading the server's versions of PHP and MySQL. And mail is not working.

But the main functionality seems fine. Let me know what you notice.

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

Daniel123

Member

Registered: 2007-05-23

Posts: 663

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

LaTeX doesn't seem to be working properly.

When I enter the above, this appears above the post:

Warning: unlink(latex/6/3/5554813ae4af1824a9595a97ea2c66.aux) [function.unlink]: No such file or directory in /home/miff/public_html/include/parser.php on line 526

Warning: unlink(latex/6/3/5554813ae4af1824a9595a97ea2c66.log) [function.unlink]: No such file or directory in /home/miff/public_html/include/parser.php on line 527

Whereas the following works:

Last edited by Daniel123 (2008-03-07 22:03:03)

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

I will look at the problem.

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

Rats. Latex is not installed on the new server. Nor is other stuff I needed.

I will go away now and try to figure out what to install ... and how.

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

Test:

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

Yay!

Latex works again.

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

mathsyperson

Moderator

Registered: 2005-06-22

Posts: 4,900

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

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Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.

Daniel123

Member

Registered: 2007-05-23

Posts: 663

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

Last edited by Daniel123 (2008-03-10 04:15:24)

Ricky

Moderator

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 3,791

Re: Server Problems Feb 08

Oh... right... pergenerated images.

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"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

JaneFairfax

Member

Registered: 2007-02-23

Posts: 6,868

Re: Server Problems Feb 08