I am using a spam prevention mod that also allows me to check users already registered, this means I am going through all registered user accounts in search of registered spammers to clean it all up, the criteria is simple: check a database, if the username, ip, mail or display name are in it, it marks them as possible spammers.

If only the username or IP coincides I might not delete it, but if two or more do then I am removing the account entirely. What does that mean?

If your account was removed or you are a lurker and don't want  that to ever happen to you, then i advise you to post at least once in the forum, since users with posts are checked for them before being removed.

As of now, I removed more than 100 users from the site.

ooooook.

Seems the latest version of the software still suffers from teh very same vulnerability the other version had, as a result the very same hacker visited us yesterday and left a message: "in one week if the vulnerability stands I will remove all files".

He only changed the index files to show he could do it, which is kinda nice considering everything, but just to be safe i deleted the entire folders structure and flashed back a clean backup copy I had from before reinstalling tinyportal (the articles / downloads / frontpage software).

I have installed and started configuring an alternative to what we had, but since I am not happy with the configuration yet I have not enabled it for everyone to see, meanwhile we are back to safe and stable forums.

I won't give up, I refuse to give up.

May the Shadow never hack us down,

Nif.

Bear with me as I announce the return of the downloads and site sections of the site!

After a long time pondering the pros and cons and making test environments for the new scenario, I have finally deployed the final solution to the live site, the software we are using now is a newer version of the same one we were using before, hopefully this version is free of the security flaw that lead us to two hacks.

Since the software version has a lot of different configuration options, let me know if anything is behaving oddly for you guys.

Enjoy full AtS once again.

May the Shadows never embrace us,

Nif.

Ladies and gentleman, AtS is back in action!

Since the site has been completely offline for 2 entire days, I would like to give everyone a heads up on what is happening. Last week the site was hacked by a hacker that self entitles himself as Maestroz, the hack was pretty minor and was quickly fixed by myself, but the means he used to enter was unknown.

I contacted my host, replaced the hacked files and couldn't get more done. This week the same hacker used the same door to compromise the entire server's vulnerability and thus compromised all sites in the AtS server. Pretty big, I know. My account was suspended until everything was fixed to avoid more hacking, thus the "Account suspended" message you may have been seeing.

The database though is intact, so no posts at all were lost in the process.

Now to theme, main page and everything else. My host asked me to avoid using the main page / downloads / articles mod I was using because it presents a series of vulnerabilities, or at least update it to the latest version, which I was avoiding because it is a beta one (or release candidate thus slightly more trusting), so in the next series of days I will be testing the means to upgrade it to that version but keeping an eye out for alternative portals and download modifications.

As for the theme, it seems replacing the files of the software with the clean install package files somehow broke the them files, but I won't work in themes until I got the front page and downloads mod working.

So for now bear with me on the freely downloadable themes for the SMF software.

AtS is alive, live and will live.

Nifelhein
AtS Admin and Proud Member

An excellent map by Dain has been uploaded to the site, it is huge and very detailed, a must have for anyone seeking quality maps with detailed information.

Give him your praises here