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Update on what happened these last couple of days

Hello Coders,

You might be wondering why Code Forum was going through a bit of downtime. Right away I want to ensure you we were not hacked nor lost any data. It was just brought to my attention by @Disruptive that our IP was being exposed.

I had to shut down Code Forum several times to ensure that all accounts were safe. We made updates to our Email System and have installed a proxy server for our images. And finally we have migrated from Apache to Nginix with offers better performance. However with this move, you may have notice we aren’t using friendly URLs. I am aware and will be working to resolve this as soon as I can.

And once again I would like to thank @Disruptive for their help and I would also like to thank you as the community for sticking with us. :)

happy coding!
 
I think everyone here at CF should give a round of applause for @Disruptive. Spotting something like that definitely isn't easy and so he should be thanked for saving all of our IP addresses. I'd actually quite like to hear how he found out about this, as that would make for an interesting story in the history books for CF.

Right away I want to ensure you we were not hacked nor lost any data.
I hope, @Master Yoda, doesn't mind me sharing this here. But, I do know that some would've been paranoid about their data being stolen during the downtime - I was one of those people, somewhat. Until the Nginx error message came up in which I knew it was just a bunch of technical-work being done in the background - So, I actually made a thread which you can all contribute to.

This thread details ways for you to keep your account and it's data here on CF, safe from criminals wanting to sell your data for a quick few bucks. Again, you can contribute to it with your own suggestions if you want to, as this will help give people even more ways to secure their account. You can find the thread here: https://www.codeforum.org/index.php?threads/tips-for-securing-your-account.982/unread

And of course, have fun and stay safe. Times are changing and we all need to adapt.
 
Yes as @Mathematical already says, I would also like to know what it may have been because there is more than just a forum with Xenforo. Maybe @Disruptive will enlighten us all one day.

I hope, @Master Yoda, doesn't mind me sharing this here. But, I do know that some would've been paranoid about their data being stolen during the downtime - I was one of those people, somewhat. Until the Nginx error message came up in which I knew it was just a bunch of technical-work being done in the background - So, I actually made a thread which you can all contribute to.
even if they did, what could you steal? An email address and a hash of the password (which is hopefully unique)

@Master Yoda maybe you should adjust that the website is displayed either with or without www. So install a redirection. So you don't have to log in twice.
 
Yes as @Mathematical already says, I would also like to know what it may have been because there is more than just a forum with Xenforo. Maybe @Disruptive will enlighten us all one day.
The IP could be found in our email headers and when images were posted on Code Forum you could follow it back to our webserver IP.
@Master Yoda maybe you should adjust that the website is displayed either with or without www. So install a redirection. So you don't have to log in twice.
I'm working on it and will have this fixed soon.
 
Not pretty, but not really dangerous either.
Agreed.

This is normal for web servers? Otherwise the DNS wouldn't know where to resolve to.
I don't see any danger in that right now.
It opens us up for DDos attacks, I'd rather make it difficult to find than it is right there. You get what I mean?
 
Yes ok but then you have to include Cloudflare or something similar and that sniffs out data.
A decent firewall and Fail2Ban can handle this without any problems and in a privacy friendly way.
 
Yes ok but then you have to include Cloudflare or something similar and that sniffs out data.
A decent firewall and Fail2Ban can handle this without any problems and in a privacy friendly way.
I installed an image proxy.
 
even if they did, what could you steal? An email address and a hash of the password (which is hopefully unique)
You are kind of right, unless of course, the user was silly enough to connect(Or even register) their CF accounts with an account from another service such as Facebook, Google, GitHub, etc. Then you potentially open the doors wider to more data than what you'd get here.

And if a hack were to happen, the last thing you'd want is the hacker to gain access to either an administrator or moderator account. Because at that point, you can see all information about regular users, including things such as IP Addresses, when and if they're online(Regardless of privacy-settings), and even notes about that user that can only be seen among staff-members. That's the last thing you want as one might simply hack one of these accounts for the sole purpose of doxxing a person they hate and then just continue on with their lives while the other person's details have been put up for the entire Internet to see and potentially steal for fraudulent cases.

images were posted on Code Forum you could follow it back to our webserver IP.
I would also like to point out that images can also contain meta-data, unless of course, the original-poster of the image removes that meta-data before uploading the photo - Even then, there still might be traces of meta-data. So, not only do you have to worry about the very IP of CF's web-server being leaked, you also need to worry about the meta-data inside of images such as the location of where the photo was taken or even the name of the person who took that photo. XenForo might potentially have code in it that removes this meta-data, but unfortunately, we cannot say for certain as there is no way to gain access to the source-code.

While it may be good that you've fixed the IP issue, now you've got image meta-data to worry about(Although, that should really be more of a concern for the user themself who uploaded the photo).
 
I would also like to point out that images can also contain meta-data, unless of course, the original-poster of the image removes that meta-data before uploading the photo - Even then, there still might be traces of meta-data. So, not only do you have to worry about the very IP of CF's web-server being leaked, you also need to worry about the meta-data inside of images such as the location of where the photo was taken or even the name of the person who took that photo. XenForo might potentially have code in it that removes this meta-data, but unfortunately, we cannot say for certain as there is no way to gain access to the source-code.
That’s what I mean, the proxy is meant to block out the IP when you look at the meta data traces. However the image location I’m not sure how Code Forum can prevent that but if you could point me to the direction where I can help I’ll see what we can do.
 
sole purpose of doxxing a person they hate
I gotta be honest, I'm the least scared of all this.

I am more afraid of the big companies and the insurance companies etc. It is not foreseeable what these companies will do with the data.
If you know Shadowrun, I think it can easily develop in that direction
Or read Daemon and Freedom by Daniel Suarez. I love his books, I devoured them.
 
That’s what I mean, the proxy is meant to block out the IP when you look at the meta data traces.
Ah, that makes more sense now.

However the image location I’m not sure how Code Forum can prevent that but if you could point me to the direction where I can help I’ll see what we can do.
I'm not sure if there is an add-on for XenForo or a way that we could write our own extension that can delete meta-data inside of images. I'll look more into image meta-data, as I don't know too much about the subject other than that certain pieces of info such as the location of where the photo is taken can be in it. Once I've learned a bit more about it, I'll then look into solutions as to how we can deal with it and prevent it from being in any image uploaded to CF.

I gotta be honest, I'm the least scared of all this.

I am more afraid of the big companies and the insurance companies etc. It is not foreseeable what these companies will do with the data.
Fair enough. Everybody has a different threat-model and if you're not that scared about being doxxed, you must be made of steel then.

Corporations and hackers are where the real threat is, as companies can be quite sloppy with their handling of data and hackers will do anything to make a quick buck off of your data by letting it be used for identity-fraud. Big Brother is just the final boss at the end of the game where it requires a lot of skill, experience, and tricks to defeat him. People who just dox others simply because of a small issue that everyone will soon forget about, are disrespectful people with no such thing as empathy in them or hell, even the slightest bit of sympathy for what they're about to do to one person.

Or read Daemon and Freedom by Daniel Suarez. I love his books, I devoured them.
They seem like interesting books. Perhaps I'll buy them sometime later this year. Thanks for the recommendations.
 
@Mathematical @Tealk @Master Yoda Thanks for the appreciation, didn’t even know this was posted. The vulnerability is actually a very common and overthought vuln that many skids in the underground community attempt in order to either DDoS the backend, or further use more exploits in order to gain deeper access. Seems like this is a decent community and I will be sticking around! :)
 

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