Forum Messing Up?

[Star Way]

Okay, I know next to nothing about PHP, so any errors you may currently be experiencing are beyond my control. I assure you that I'll be contacting phpBB (the maker of this forum software) about these bugs and will do everything in my power to keep things under control.

If the forum closes down at any time, don't panic, it's just me trying to work on things without everyone hanging around.

I am *very* sorry for any inconveniece.

[Chad Rains offline]

the mysql error that popped up just recently is more than likely just a small server hiccup. nothing necessarily stemming from phpbb.

[Star Way]

That's not what I'm worried about, it's other things on the actual forum... Like TB3's account being deleted mysteriously.

[Stonecreek]

So that's whyt there's only 302 users now when there were 303 around 3 am this morning.

[TL.]

To all the members of LF. TB3's account has been deleted by these problems we are encountering. All of his posts are gone His threads, his fan art and the one and only: Lets Talk Tech is GONE! Pages in threads he has posted on, including the VA threads, XANADU etc are down. This is a crisis and my brother is VERY distressed by this.

The source of this problem must be located for LF and TB3 to go on!

[Chad Rains offline]

in that case (sorry. didnt notice before. all I saw was the all too common mysql error and thats it), I would more than likely assume someone was trying to hack their way in through the forums. although if thats the case, I dont understand why they went after TB3's account and not yours (since as I understand it, your the only one who actually has full admin access to the forums).

in any case, what version of phpbb are you currently running and what kind of addons (if any) are you running with it? that will give go good indication of how whoever got in (again, not 100% sure it was someone actually hacking the forums, but im 98.5% sure seeing the specific deletion of a single user account)

on another possibly related note, does anyone else have cpanel access to your site?

and on a final note, I would try and get in contact with dreamhost and see if they possibly have any insight as to what happened to the server during the little mysql conundrum. that could posibly explain a few things as well.

P.S. I would also suggest a dataase backup JIC.

[Chad Rains offline]

nvm. I now see why they would go after TB3's account seeing TL's post. I would definitely consider a hacking a definite cause of this. please consider the options ive posted above.

[Lotho offline]

It looks a lot to me like a hack. Although I don't know why they would delete TB3's account. There are also a few threads with "No posts exist for this topic" errors on them. I would suggest you review your server logs.

[DL offline]

could it be...no it couldn't...but could it? does he even know how to hack!?!!?

[JeremyHopper offline]

Who? TB3 didn't hack himself out.

[DL offline]

not TB3...him...you know

[Darkborn offline]

woah i didn't even notice TB3 was gone. Crap we got to fix this.

[Star Way]

This is quite frightening. But I'm not sure it was a hacker... If it was, I don't understand why they would delete his account and not try to change my password or something at the same time. o__O

And if it was a hacker... I'm very sorry to say this, but there is no way to get TB3's posts or account back. *sigh*

Also, to those of you who believe a "certain person" may be responsible for this in some way, I highly doubt it. If he knew how to get into my account in the first place, he'd have almost certainly attempted to do more damage than he did- a LOT more.

Again, I am so very sorry to everyone who was affected by this bizarre and scary chain of events, and especially to TB3... From now on, I'll be doing the most I can to keep this place as secure as possible.

[Chad Rains offline]

actually, if I could personally get a look at the database, I could see if its possible to get TB3's posts back.

essentially my theory is that the only thing that was deleted was just TB3's profile. all his posts and topics are still in tact. thats why various topics are reading X number of pages but the last 1 or 2 arent viewable. this is probably because the forum is still seeing TB3's posts, but isnt showing them because his account is no longer there.

if the above is the case, its all a matter of injecting a new profile into the database using the userid TB3 had before. then it should all be somewhat back to normal.

EDIT: I will do some research on my own phpbb database and will try to pm you some instructions on how to check this for yourself.

[YDV offline]

God.. I hope you guys can fix this. We put a lot of time and effort into the "Let's Talk Tech" thread.

And is it even possible to hack a forum? I mean, UMSD was "hacked" before but it just ended up being a farse by the admins... And yeah, it could be who you're tlaking about but I doubt it.

Hate to break the tension, but..

Suppose it's the mysterious forum ghost, member #1 (aka Leon Corbe? )

[Star Way]

That would be very helpful. I don't know anything about the inner workings of the forum though, so you'll have to treat me like the PHP n00b I am. ^__^;

Anyway, if this is truly the case it would certainly be wonderful if it were a matter of a quick fix... (Of course, realistically, even a not-so-quick-fix would be god at this point.)

In the mean time, I'll make a post at the phpBB support forum and try to get some help.

[Darkborn offline]

It could have been Xana! (I'm just trying to cheer people up, Laugh a little)

[Star Way]

That would make sense.. I mean, TB3 was SO onto him with that big 'Let's Talk Tech!' thread.

[Chad Rains offline]

while im getting a test phpbb forum up (to properly test my theory in a development environment), heres a few quick things you can do to see if TB3's posts are indeed still in the database (they should be. otherwise it would be very difficult to remove them without wiping the whole forum) and also see if his profile was the only thing removed.

go into the control panel that dreamhost has provided you and look for something to do with "Mysql" or "PhpMyAdmin". if its the first, look under that and see if there is a reference to phpmyadmin. this is the key thing you will be looking for.

once in phpmyadmin, there should be 2 vertical frames. on the left side, there will be a dropdown menu. in there look for something ending with _forums or _phpbb or something similar and select that.

then in the left frame again you should see a fairly long list of names starting with phpBB_ . first go and find phpbb_posts. click that, then in the right frame click the "Browse" tab at the top. then click the "Search" tab. this next page will be a little confusing, but there is only one thing you should be concerned about here: in the last block of items, go to the line that starts with "poste_id". in the value box for that, enter "102" without the quotes and click the go button. if my theory is correct, it should return some lines at the bottom of the screen with text resembling TB3's old posts. this is goo. this means his posts are still in the database.


P.S. got a test forum running at http://www.simmersquarterly.com/phpbb/ . need as much people to sign up as possible and spam the test forum a good bit.

[Chad Rains offline]

next thing to do in phpmyadmin is to go to the left frame again, but click on "phpbb_users". again, click search, and under "user_id", enter 102 again and click go. if it comes back blank, that means my theory is pretty much spot on and whatever happened just removed his profile and nothing else. if thats the case, just stay there and I will try and get you the code necessary to put in a temporary profile for TB3.

[Darkborn offline]

Are you like a real life Jeremie or something? I feel like Odd when he is trying to understand Jeremie's science talk. But, i really hope it works.

[Arcalyth offline]

All the posts and stuff are stored in the database. Perhaps the posts are still intact like VChat said. If so it's possible to get them back by creating the account manually.

-Halo

[Lotho offline]

The thing is that I think TB3's posts were deleted and the forum removed the threads he started because when his posts were removed the threads he started ended up having no name and apparently dissappeared.

This was the old Let's Talk Tech thread
http://www.lyokofreak.net/forum/viewtop ... sc&start=0

As you see all of the other posts remain while all of his were deleted. I think that the second poster of the thread is given permissions that the original thread maker had such as changing the title. If the second user adds a title the thread should reappear.

[Star Way]

this next page will be a little confusing, but there is only one thing you should be concerned about here: in the last block of items, go to the line that starts with "poste_id". in the value box for that, enter "102" without the quotes and click the go button. if my theory is correct, it should return some lines at the bottom of the screen with text resembling TB3's old posts. this is goo. this means his posts are still in the database.

Got into phpMyAdmin, but... I'm lost now... Where is this value box you speak of? o__o *stupid*

[Chad Rains offline]

what exactly do you see on the page in front of you? do you see this:



the yellow box is where to enter the "102". btw, the significance of 102 is thats the userid that TB3 had. he was the 101st person to sign up (guest user automatically takes userid 1. Star way has userid 2)