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Old 05 December 2001, 10:33 AM
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Question

This morning, in fact about 20 minutes ago, there was a thread about Skylines #57933

It has been deleted. Why?

Normally such threads that are started along those lines end up in the Muppet Forum. So why is it not there?

There was nothing libelous on there. No danger to scoobynet, but yet it was still deleted. I, & probably most people, was under the impression from Webbie (& I can't be bothered to do a search to find the post about 4 months ago) that he absolutely hated deleting anything and would only do so as a last resort if the community or scoobynet or anyone were in serious risk of litigation.

I don't really care about this thread in particular, but just the principle. Please explain why it was deleted.
Old 05 December 2001, 10:35 AM
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MorayMackenzie
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Angry

I just deleted a thread in general "Skylines rule".

I deleted it because it had been posted by someone else under my user id.

I keep my password details private, unfortunately the BBS software doesn't appear to do the same.

Moray

Old 05 December 2001, 10:41 AM
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Reasonable explanation given the circumstances as I was just about to add this thread http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...threadid=57813 to the pot.

Did you get the IP?
Old 05 December 2001, 10:43 AM
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Cool

On a mission I see

Old 05 December 2001, 10:59 AM
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we aim to please.
Old 05 December 2001, 12:15 PM
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Angry

Before you go making wild accusations Moray I suggest you find out what the REAL cause of someone posting under your name really was!!
Old 05 December 2001, 12:21 PM
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PS. Moray I have turned your moderator privelages off as a precaution until we can sort this out.
Old 05 December 2001, 12:31 PM
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puff what am I looking for in that thread?
Old 05 December 2001, 12:52 PM
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Adam M
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Surely this suggests some kind of loop hole in the security of the bbs software.

Either that or has someone guessed your password moray?
Old 05 December 2001, 12:57 PM
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Adam.. you are right in that "what moray has said" suggests that. which is why I am a little annoyed.

There is no evidence of this and nothing I can think of that would allow that. The only other possibility is that the old bbs software was hacked (which had known issues) and the password has been carried over.

I am looking into it and have IP addresses for all actions by the person who was using this password.

Regards

webmaster
Old 05 December 2001, 01:03 PM
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Adam M
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siorry simon but my technical knowledge is a little pants.

Doesnt this mean that moray could just change to a new password and have his moderator priviliges reinstated?

That way there would be no old version of the software with the new password.

I am going to duck and cover now as clearly I have made an embarassing faux pas.
Old 05 December 2001, 01:15 PM
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adam.. absolutely..

But I can't get hold of moray so I've removed them "until we can sort it out"...

deepest apologies that these are quick replies.. I'm flat out today

all the best

Simon
Old 05 December 2001, 01:16 PM
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Exclamation

Could someone quickly tell me why my thread was deleted? I copied it straight out of a newspaper article and as it was in a newspaper for general view I assumed there would be no problem posting it here.........

Cheers

Michelle
Old 05 December 2001, 01:17 PM
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it's been re-instated michelle. It was deleted by the person using moray's account along with about 5 others.
Old 05 December 2001, 01:21 PM
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Exclamation

Many thanks for your help and a swift answer Simon

Best Regards

Michelle
Old 05 December 2001, 01:58 PM
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Angry

This is me posting from my machine, in case that helps in searching the IP logs.

The only post I've deleted in the last day is the one in question "Skylines rule".

I changed my password shortly after the issue coming to light, so assuming it was a guessed password then that's fixed now. In fact, I believe I had changed my password before my accounts moderator status was revoked.

I am 99.9% sure no one used my machine to do this, would be interested to see what the IP logs state.

Although I believe that this is unrelated to this particular security breach, there is an issue with security that I detailed in a more appropriate location that I don't currently have access to. This problem does exist and could be reasonably easily rectified in software.

My mobile has been on all day and it doesn't report having had any missed calls or new messages.
Old 05 December 2001, 02:44 PM
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Webbie

Nothing sinister in the Skyline post or the other one I mentioned.

Was just wondering why it got deleted as it seemed pretty innocuous to me & eventually destined for muppetdoom, like the other one I mentioned.

Nice to know you're still on the ball at Mission Control



Old 05 December 2001, 10:24 PM
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Moray

I sent you an email to your hotmail account.

Drop me a line to discuss if you get time.

Cheers

Simon
Old 06 December 2001, 10:53 AM
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Question

Simon,

I've only received one email from yourself, Is this the email you are refering to?

Subject: "security"
Content: "what are you saying then? Has someone sat at your computer and <deleted>??"


If this is the mail you were refering to, then, as written above, I am 99.9% sure that this was not what has happened. I reckon it is more likely that someone guessed my password, which was an english word at the time and has since been replaced with an alphanumeric sequence. I have also taken further precautions to ensure no one else can access my account from this machine.

My comment about the bbs not keeping my details secure was bourne out of a discovery I made whilst I was investigating this incident at my end. I disclosed said discovery to you in a more appropriate location. Is it fair to say that the issue I raised could allow unauthorised use of a scoobynet account by someone other than the accounts owner who has access to the account owners filestore?

Have you had a chance to look at the IP logs yet?

At what time/s did the imposter delete those topics you mentioned?

I have changed my password and taken certain other precautions I won't detail here for security reasons, so what else do we need to do to "sort it out"?

Moray
Old 06 December 2001, 11:10 AM
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Moray

The important thing is that it is not the scoobynet software that has a security hole in it.. it is more that if your machine is compromised there is a problem.

But this is the case anyway no matter what you do.

Please think about Moray as you have missed a very important point. If people have access to your *files* they can copy them and place them on their own machine. It would then not matter at all how clever that file was.

It is very easy to make people nervous by stating things you did.

regards

Simon
Old 06 December 2001, 11:48 AM
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Webmaster,

Am I right in thinking that you believe that someone has got access to Moray's cookie folders and copied his scoobynet one to their own machine so that they can impersonate him?
Old 06 December 2001, 01:49 PM
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Simon,

Have you had a chance to look at the IP logs yet?

At what time/s did the imposter delete those topics you mentioned?

The answers to these questions would obviously help to track down the problem and consequently "sort it out".

Moray
Old 06 December 2001, 01:57 PM
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I have indeed looked at the IP logs and am having the relevant companies and authorities looking at them.

All the best

Simon
Old 06 December 2001, 02:01 PM
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Simon,

At what time/s did the imposter delete those topics you mentioned?

Moray

Old 06 December 2001, 02:13 PM
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Sorry guys
My IT skills sucks( thats why started with sorry) I use lots of different Terminals at work and asked if we can have LOG in and LOG out (simular to SIDC/bbs and AOL )
On your old software I was allowed to switch off cooky use (obviously the new software requires it) and didn't Have to remember to delete cookies. Gone back to a terminal I had,nt used for a while go to post a reply username and password already filledd in Don't mind on my own Computor

Tony
Old 06 December 2001, 05:37 PM
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Simon,

Do you know when the imposter deleted the topics you mentioned? The times logged by the bbs for these delete operations would help me at this end. The machine I have been using here is in a secure locked down environment, so access is limited to very few people, none of whom are scoobynet users.

Moray
Old 06 December 2001, 06:43 PM
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Moray

Why don't you email me offline and we can sort it out?

Cheers

Simon
Old 07 December 2001, 10:46 AM
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Unhappy

Can this be discussed in open forum please?

If there is a security issue we should know about it.
Old 07 December 2001, 10:48 AM
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That's all well and good. But if there is a security risk I would rather not add additional risk to you all by broadcasting it to the world!

regards

webmaster
Old 07 December 2001, 10:56 AM
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Red face

Clearly there *IS* a security 'situation' else you would have stated otherwise.

You need to state in broad terms what the problem is, so that people can make their own judgements about whether it affects them. Simply refusing to discuss it means that EVERYONE will assume it affects them when it might not.

So in this instance not disclosing detail might actually make the problem much worse than it might otherwise be.



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