Being hit by old SMF exploit

nutn2lewz

Trekkie

Offline

Posts: 13

Being hit by old SMF exploit

« on: January 31, 2008, 09:53:09 AM »

My subdomain forums.homepokertourney.com on my dedicated server is being hit from ip's around he
world, especially eastern Europe, and this is crashing MySQL and overloading
my server. I have a SMF forum installed and I receive thousands of these
requests in two or three minutes ...

/index.php?action=quickmod2;topic=6634.0
Http Code: 200 Date: Jan 30 13:06:29 Http Version: HTTP/1.0 Size in Bytes:
12299
Referer: -
Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)

I am assured by SMF that this is an old exploit of the forum software and
has been patched. My forum is up to date and I only have problems when I
receive thousands of these hits from rotating ip's throughout the world.

Top Process %CPU 38.0 httpd [forums.homepokertourney.com]
[/index.php?actionquickmod2;topic6312.20]
Top Process %CPU 21.0 httpd [forums.homepokertourney.com]
[/index.php?actionquickmod2;topic150.0]
Top Process %CPU 16.0 httpd [forums.homepokertourney.com]
[/index.php?actionquickmod2;topic4028.80]

Restarting MySQL and/or HTTP (Apache) always resolves the problem until I am
once again hit by numerous requests.

Here is the response from Tech Support ..

---- TECH RESPONSE STARTS HERE ----
Hello,

First of all i advise you to update your SMF scripts. We will also optimizing mysql database at 35$ one time fee. In order to do, we will need to verify account ownership with your last 4 digit of your cc. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask us, we will be happy to answer them. Please feel free to contact us for further help. We are committed to making your hosting experiences pleasant and fulfilling.

Thank you for contacting lunar pages support team.
----

With all due respect to the 30 seconds that Tech Support spent on my problem ... I do not think that optimizing my database will solve the problem. My SMF forum scripts are all up to date. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Barry


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Mitch

Lunarpages Traffic Cop
Senior Moderator
Berserker Poster

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Posts: 6741

Re: Being hit by old SMF exploit

« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2008, 10:06:46 AM »

Well for direct help on this server side issue, I would still recommend talking with support. Tell them exactly the same thing you told us and I am sure they will review your comments and reconsider the direction if needed. What version of SMF are you running?


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nutn2lewz

Trekkie

Offline

Posts: 13

Re: Being hit by old SMF exploit

« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2008, 09:55:08 AM »

I am running the latest (1.14) version of SMF. All my files are up to date.

I'm not sure what you mean by suggesting that I talk with support - I sent them the message that I posted below and their suggestions were to update my SMF scripts (they are all up to date) and that LP could optimize my database for $35. Should I try emailing again?

Thanks, Barry


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white_hacker

Trekkie

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Posts: 11

Re: Being hit by old SMF exploit

« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2008, 10:33:06 PM »

I did a very fast search through my hacking & security related websites. I came across one entry for cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Involving SMF version 1.14 with no listed fixes or solutions yet. The trouble especially with scripts is as soon as they're patched there are always new ones out circulating the hacker community. Your tech reply is typical for updating & support give very little help when it comes to scripting. It may be worth replying to ask how they feel optimizing the database will help. Also exactly what they'll do to optimize it. At least initially if you notice the IP addresses show any type of pattern. You can keep adding them to the ban list. Without further investigation & doing IP tracing which can be tricky and time consuming to do well. It's tough to give any real solution without knowing more details. Since you're paying for dedicated, I would keep after support for better assistance. Especially if it's stuff up resources enough to cause SQL to hang & crash your server.


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Toon_Dawg

Spaceship Navigator

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Posts: 93

Re: Being hit by old SMF exploit

« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2008, 02:26:14 PM »

Ban their IP range if possible to see if that helps.


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