MnGCA

Mario and Princess Peach · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:08 am Post subject: My phpBB was hacked last night

I run several phpBB discussion forums (which is the forum software used here, too)- a couple for business another for entertainment. I'm running version 2.06, which is old (2.16 is current- so, I'm 10 releases off). Apparently, it allows hackers to replace my header with their own message and postentially other nefarious exploits (which didn't happen, thankfully). Last night, a hacker replaced my discussion forum header with "To AI, wish you luck" and a graphic.

So, today, I'm updating the version of my phpBB to improve the security. I can't tell the version of phpBB in use here, but since the copyright is 2002, I'm guessing it's phpBB 2.0. If you consider updating the version to avoid this random hacking that's going around, here are the steps for version 2.0.

0. Backup the database via the control panel.
1. rename or copy existing config.php to a temporary location.
2. upload the new files (get theme here: http://www.phpbb.com/downloads.php) to the same location as your previous installation of phpBB 2.0, ie. overwrite the existing files.
3. delete the newly uploaded copy of config.php and replace it with old existing copy.
4. run update_to_final.php which, depending on previous version, will make a number of database changes.

"You may receive the occasional "FAILURE" during this procedure; they shouldn't be a cause for concern unless you see an actual "ERROR", in which case the script will stop."

I'll let you know how my update goes.

Mario and Princess Peach · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:13 am Post subject:

Here are more detailed instructions

http://www.phpbb.com/support/guide/

Marsha and Silent Bob · Past MnGCA President Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 6261

I have moved this to the appropriate area of the forum.
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Sad state of affairs.

Mario and Princess Peach · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 8:29 am Post subject:

Okay, thanks.

Well, now I'm thinking that one of the moderators on my forum is making some sort of bizaar power play to try and get admin rights. It's a long story. Why can't people just be nice and normal? I swear, some people just thrive on drama. I took my whole forum offline until I can sort it out. It looks like I'll end up moving to a different web host over this. Ugh Crying or Very sad