ubuntu forum **Important **

[Tom Davies]

Hi :)

I tend to think in more generic terms rather than keeping up with the latest details.  So, my instant panic has so far proven to be unfounded.  Maybe next time, if there is one, but bear in mind that this is the first time there has been trouble in just under a decade soit could be a long wait!  My efforts to quickly change all my passwords for all Ubuntu-releated sites has not been a complete waste because i hadn't changed them for years and years previously and we should all be updating our passwords fairly 'often'.  



I like the way they are using the page to give progress reports rather than just leaving it as a 404.  So, from their site ... Progress report
	* 2013-07-20 2011UTC: Reports of defacement
	* 2013-07-20 2015UTC: Site taken down, this splash page put in place while investigation continues.
	* 2013-07-21: we believe the root cause of the breach has been 
identified.  We are currently reinstalling the forums software from 
scratch.  No data (posts, private messages etc.) will be lost as part of this process.
	* 2013-07-22: work on reinstalling the forums continues.
I was kinda hoping they might lose one or 2 (or pretty much all) of my posts tbh and i'd bet i am not alone there!  I don't think i have said anything particularly useful in there.  Perhaps 1 or 2 posts that weren't completely embarrassing to look back onand that maybe helped their threads make progress or confirmed a problem solved.  I'm not very good at that sort of thing though! :(  On the other hand there are a lot of valuable posts and all sorts of stuff that would be quite unfortunate to lose.  


Regards from 

Tom :)  






>________________________________
> From: Phill Whiteside <PhillW at Ubuntu.com>
>To: Vikram Dhillon <dhillonv10 at gmail.com> 
>Cc: Ubuntu Team <ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com> 
>Sent: Thursday, 25 July 2013, 2:49
>Subject: Re: ubuntu forum **Important **
> 
>
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>It was a known weakness in vBulletin that was not closed.
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>On 25 July 2013 02:43, Vikram Dhillon <dhillonv10 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Hi Conno, 
>>
>>
>>On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 8:06 AM, Conno B. <conno.boel at solcon.nl> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>>Hi Tom (and list)
>>> 
>>>Thanks for the quick answer!
>>> 
>>>Yeah, I'll wait with asking the really hard questions 
until they're finished with repairing too, I guess.
>>>maybe /if any of them reads this/ would it be an idea to 
have the forums run in a kind of "safe mode" first, when they're 
up?
>>> 
>>In network security, generally once you find out what caused the problem (vulnerable code, some zero day, outdate software which btw is _very unlikely_ So once the admins figure out how the attackers got in, patch it up, the forums will be up. There isn't really a need for a safe mode because once they're up, they've already been tested and everything by that point. 
>> 
>>Hm, I don't have any active accounts, besides my 
Ubuntu-one. I think maintaining a lot of accounts is a hassle 
>.<
>>>From what I know, neither of these two are at direct risk, 
am I right?
>>> 
>>Yes, ubuntu forums are the only thing impacted, ubuntu-one is totally fine.   
>>yeah, my senior always told me:
>>>"in case of trouble, get a pot 'o' coffee, sit down, and 
wait until there's no-one pressuring you"
>>>So, no, I wasn't actually planning on storming the actual 
maintainers with questions now >.<
>>> 
>>Good advice here.  
>>And I know that there's more sources out there (Thank 
open-source :D)
>>>But I actually also found a halfway-around, you can use 
google cache to (up to a certain level) gain acess to posts,
>>>so for now, that way is good enough for me :D
>>> 
>>The cache generally maintains old posts so yea, you can get a lot from there, youtube is another source for somethings that you might need.  
>>
>>greetings,
>>>Cornelis
>>> 
>>>//Extra info - spoiler alert//
>>>The reason I'll persist in asking said questions, is that 
I have a low-latency freelance job as writer for a dutch PC-mag.
>>>so, since my redaction said they'd be interested if I 
could fish out details, I'd thought to go ahead and ask stuff 
>.<
>>
>>
>>If there's something that you really can't find out or need clarification for, feel free to email me, and please don't include the list in cc since they probably don't want more noise on questions that might not be related directly to the documentation. 
>>-- 
>>Regards,
>>Vikram Dhillon
>>
>>~~~
>>To perceive is to suffer. 
>>--
>>ubuntu-doc mailing list
>>ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
>>https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc
>>
>>
>>-- 
>>https://wiki.ubuntu.com/phillw 
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