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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: SysAdmin on January 11, 2012, 04:01:26 AM

Title: AmigaWorld.Net hacked
Post by: SysAdmin on January 11, 2012, 04:01:26 AM
News from zerohero via amigaworld.net


Dear amigaworld.net users,

We are sorry to admit it but it seems AmigaWorld.Net was hacked today. Most likely it wasn't our server the hacker got the passwords from, but we have no idea of knowing so far. We suggest everyone changes their password as quickly as possible.

We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Regards,
AmigaWorld.Net staff
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Kesa on January 11, 2012, 04:11:51 AM
I don't condone hacking but if whoever is doing it why not hack something useful like CommodoreAmiga.org?   :confused:

Why do the bad things always happen to the good people? :(
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: amigadave on January 11, 2012, 04:22:20 AM
Quote from: Transition;675299
News from zerohero via amigaworld.net


Dear amigaworld.net users,

We are sorry to admit it but it seems AmigaWorld.Net was hacked today. Most likely it wasn't our server the hacker got the passwords from, but we have no idea of knowing so far. We suggest everyone changes their password as quickly as possible.

We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Regards,
AmigaWorld.Net staff

Since Trevor's accounts appear to have been hacked on all forum sites, it would appear that the hacker either A. decided to only pick on Trevor for some reason, or B. they some how compromised Trevor's passwords only, perhaps by breaking into his computer, or some other method.

Just to be safe, I am changing all my passwords and suggest that everyone do the same.  It is a good idea to do so periodically anyway.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: hooligan on January 11, 2012, 05:36:26 AM
Judging by the friendly nature of hackers post at Morphzone it appears as if the hacker is somehow related to Trevor. A friend, an ex-friend, familymember or fellow member of some Amiga-site. That or we have the friendliest hacker ever :)
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: lsmart on January 11, 2012, 08:04:40 AM
Quote from: hooligan;675308
That or we have the friendliest hacker ever :)


Outside of the Amiga-scene a message like the one on AmigaWorld.net can perfectly ruin your entire business. You must drink a lot of MorphOS cool aid if you don't see the hostility of the message.

But given the market, reputation and price tag of the X1000 I doubt that the brief period of misinformation will have an impact.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Karlos on January 11, 2012, 09:22:25 AM
Let's be clear about one thing. There's nothing friendly about taking over someone's account and using it to post comments that could directly hurt their business. Trevor is a decent chap and has taken a significant risk in trying to bring a new machine to market.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: weirdami on January 11, 2012, 09:37:47 AM
I haven't been back to that site ever since I was banned for no good reason. I don't need to change my password so much as they can just go ahead and delete my account. :-/
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Kesa on January 11, 2012, 09:46:44 AM
Quote from: weirdami;675326
I haven't been back to that site ever since I was banned for no good reason. I don't need to change my password so much as they can just go ahead and delete my account. :-/

Why did you get banned? What was the reason?   :confused:
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Bundi on January 11, 2012, 10:19:29 AM
What do you guys use to manage your passwords? Do you all just have reliable recall?

Thanks!
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: hooligan on January 11, 2012, 10:27:46 AM
Quote from: lsmart;675318
Outside of the Amiga-scene a message like the one on AmigaWorld.net can perfectly ruin your entire business. You must drink a lot of MorphOS cool aid if you don't see the hostility of the message.

But given the market, reputation and price tag of the X1000 I doubt that the brief period of misinformation will have an impact.


Morphzone message was like "site admins please try to do your work better, best regards - the haxor". I have no idea what has been posted at aw.net.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Duce on January 11, 2012, 10:28:03 AM
re: PW management

I use Keepass and love it, but there's no Amiga version of it.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Daedalus on January 11, 2012, 10:34:25 AM
Quote from: hooligan;675334
Morphzone message was like "site admins please try to do your work better, best regards - the haxor". I have no idea what has been posted at aw.net.


A very civil hacker indeed :) Well, I didn't see it on AW.net either, but I would imagine it was similar, if not the same as the one which is still on Amigans.net:

http://www.amigans.net/modules/xforum/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5123&forum=4
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: xPhilx on January 11, 2012, 12:00:19 PM
Quote from: Bundi;675333
What do you guys use to manage your passwords? Do you all just have reliable recall?

Thanks!

Using 'Keyring' on a PalmOS Lifedrive here. I like to store my passwords offline.

Find it here:-
http://gnukeyring.sourceforge.net/
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Terminills on January 11, 2012, 01:09:14 PM
Quote from: Kesa;675301
I don't condone hacking but if whoever is doing it why not hack something useful like CommodoreAmiga.org?   :confused:

Why do the bad things always happen to the good people? :(


bite me. ;)
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: dammy on January 11, 2012, 02:00:45 PM
Quote from: Kesa;675301
I don't condone hacking but if whoever is doing it why not hack something useful like CommodoreAmiga.org?   (


What a hateful statement to make.  Guess haters have to hate.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: jorkany on January 11, 2012, 02:42:36 PM
Seems like every week I'm reading in the news about somebody who posts something to Facebook et al that they later regret and then blame "a hacker".
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Templario on January 11, 2012, 05:29:37 PM
And the big question, why all amiga sites was hacked?
And for what someone our passwords?
And what security have this Amiga sites?
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: tone007 on January 11, 2012, 05:55:07 PM
It's the beginning of the end!!!1!1
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: amigadave on January 11, 2012, 06:01:10 PM
Quote from: hooligan;675308
Judging by the friendly nature of hackers post at Morphzone it appears as if the hacker is somehow related to Trevor. A friend, an ex-friend, familymember or fellow member of some Amiga-site. That or we have the friendliest hacker ever :)

I totally agree with Karlos, this attack on Trevor was anything but "friendly".

It is a real shame that Trevor has had to put up with so much abuse when he is really trying hard to improve this tiny community knowing full well that he will never recoup the investment he has made, just trying to bring us better hardware to run OS4 on.  He deserves much better than that, even if you are one of the people that disagree with his choices (which mostly were not his choices anyway, as he left the specifications of the X1000 up to the OS4 developers and did not choose them himself).

Hopefully this won't happen again.  It was reported on AW.net that maybe more than one account was compromised, but I don't know who else had their accounts misused by the hacker.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: kickstart on January 11, 2012, 08:52:36 PM
Hoolingan use the word "friendly" in other sense, a hacker make other kind of work, too serious this threads for a user accident.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: hooligan on January 11, 2012, 09:29:34 PM
Quote from: kickstart;675402
Hoolingan use the word "friendly" in other sense, a hacker make other kind of work, too serious this threads for a user accident.


Thank you. At least someone got it right.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: kedawa on January 12, 2012, 09:44:33 AM
What was actually posted using Trevor's account?
I'm curious now.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: koaftder on January 12, 2012, 10:08:30 AM
Quote from: kedawa;675444
What was actually posted using Trevor's account?
I'm curious now.


http://i.imgur.com/MB0iI.png
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: djrikki on January 12, 2012, 10:11:45 AM
Quote from: tone007;675383
It's the beginning of the end!!!1!1


Nah, this is the beginning of the end.

http://americancensorship.org/

Surprised I haven't seen a thread here about it within the Amiga landscape - its quite a serious threat now
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Severin on January 13, 2012, 11:42:48 PM
So any plans to reset the passwords?

- The h4cker
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: McVenco on January 14, 2012, 12:20:36 AM
Password reset sounds like a good idea.

- The h4cker
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: commodorejohn on January 14, 2012, 12:46:30 AM
As they say of New Yorker cartoons: "Christ, what an asshοle."
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: persia on January 14, 2012, 04:59:04 AM
Guy was claiming to sell a sub 2 GHz dual core machine for 1700 quid and other outrageous stuff.  Glad he got caught.

Quote from: jorkany;675356
Seems like every week I'm reading in the news about somebody who posts something to Facebook et al that they later regret and then blame "a hacker".
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Marcb on January 14, 2012, 09:05:48 AM
@Persia

:roflmao:
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: kedawa on January 14, 2012, 03:02:22 PM
Ouch.  :roflmao:
Title: Is AW.net down?
Post by: amigadave on January 15, 2012, 01:24:26 PM
I have not been able to get AmigaWorld.net to show up on any browser for the last 6 to 8 hours.  All I get is "waiting for" message at the bottom of Firefox and AW.net never loads.

Anyone else been able to get in there, or has the hacker that has been messing with Amiga sites been successful in taking it down completely?:angry:
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: cecilia on January 15, 2012, 01:30:43 PM
trying now and I am not getting there...
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Krischan76 on January 15, 2012, 01:35:07 PM
I THINK early this morning (Central European Time) it still worked.

But not anymore.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Karlos on January 15, 2012, 02:03:37 PM
It responds to pings and can be tracerouted to without any problem. Seems like apache might be stopped.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Piru on January 15, 2012, 02:09:10 PM
Hmm port 80 connects, but nothing happens after that. Perhaps squid or some other reverse proxy in the front is up but the apache on the background is down.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Karlos on January 15, 2012, 02:20:07 PM
Quote from: Piru;675892
Hmm port 80 connects, but nothing happens after that. Perhaps squid or some other reverse proxy is in the front is up but the apache on the background is down.


I don't think they are using squid or any sort of front-end cache, unless it's for static site assets only.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: jonssonj on January 15, 2012, 06:54:08 PM
I still can't access amigaworld.net. Anyone that knows more about their issues?

BR
JJ
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Karlos on January 15, 2012, 06:57:28 PM
Quote from: jonssonj;675934
I still can't access amigaworld.net. Anyone that knows more about their issues?

BR
JJ


Not at this time. It's been at least 18 hours, possibly longer, since I last saw it up and running. Hopefully one of their staff can fill us in on what is going on.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: number6 on January 15, 2012, 06:58:03 PM
Quote from: jonssonj;675934
I still can't access amigaworld.net. Anyone that knows more about their issues?

BR
JJ



Not much yet.
About 5 days ago irc lost services.
Then came the account hacking.
Yesterday there were mixed results from attempting to use the site.
(1)slow (2)blank front page (3)error messages in browsers like "failure to connect"

I should add that as a result of the lost services, if you use AW irc, you should connect through de.amigaworld.net or se2.amigaworld.net which basically uses .de.
Polarboing is still dead. (services)

#6
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Karlos on January 15, 2012, 07:04:42 PM
Quote from: number6;675936
Not much yet.
About 5 days ago irc lost services.
Then came the account hacking.
Yesterday there were mixed results from attempting to use the site.
(1)slow (2)blank front page (3)error messages in browsers like "failure to connect"

#6

If I recall clearly, it's a dedicated server. It still pings promptly enough which suggests at least it isn't being DDoS'ed. Again, port 80 can be connected to, but it seems there's nothing listening on it.

Aside from hacking, it could be a broken/misconfigured update, disk failure or a number of other issues. One downside of a dedicated server is that the machine is basically yours to destroy and fix (unless you pay for support). Without any word from the admin, we can't know for sure.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: number6 on January 15, 2012, 07:09:20 PM
Quote from: Karlos;675940
If I recall clearly, it's a dedicated server. It still pings promptly enough which suggests at least it isn't being DDoS'ed. Again, port 80 can be connected to, but it seems there's nothing listening on it.



I consider the 3 separate issues listed in my prior post above to be merely coincidental, but we'll see.

#6
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: ChaosLord on January 15, 2012, 07:42:16 PM
Hope its not down for as long as UtilityBase.org :cry:
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Karlos on January 15, 2012, 08:21:16 PM
Quote from: number6;675943
I consider the 3 separate issues listed in my prior post above to be merely coincidental, but we'll see.

#6

It seems the problem has expanded to include DNS resolution; the name no longer resolves here (was fine earlier), but that could be just me.

-edit-

Pinging the address it was resolved to earlier no longer works (100% packet loss) :-/
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: SamuraiCrow on January 15, 2012, 08:21:16 PM
Not only is AmigaWorld.net down, so is Aros-Exec.org.  I wonder if this has something to do with Xoops since both of those boards run it.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Karlos on January 15, 2012, 08:32:17 PM
Quote from: SamuraiCrow;675953
Not only is AmigaWorld.net down, so is Aros-Exec.org.  I wonder if this has something to do with Xoops since both of those boards run it.


Hmm, aros-exec.org still resolves OK but it seems there's nobody at home there, either (no ping response, port 80 closed).
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Krischan76 on January 15, 2012, 09:02:08 PM
I can't connect to amiga-news.de or aminet.net either.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: weiseb on January 15, 2012, 09:06:11 PM
> I can't connect to amiga-news.de or aminet.net either.

Same here.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Karlos on January 15, 2012, 09:09:20 PM
Confirmed. Aminet also appears to be down.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: eliyahu on January 15, 2012, 09:12:18 PM
Quote from: Karlos;675964
Confirmed. Aminet also appears to be down.
i hesitate to say it, but os4depot.net (http://os4depot.net) is still up. i hope it doesn't go down now that i'm bringing attention to it.

this is either one heck of a coincidence or some pathetic little ponce thinks he's being impressive by bringing down a few retro-computing sites.

-- eliyahu
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: jonssonj on January 15, 2012, 09:15:20 PM
I'm trying to install OS3.9 on a real harddrive under winuae and I need to download files from Aminet to get going, I need the latest sfs and fixhdssize or hdinst. Is there anyone out there that knows where I can get these files if Aminet is down?

BR
JJ
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: giZmo350 on January 15, 2012, 09:22:54 PM
Quote from: eliyahu;675965
i hesitate to say it, but os4depot.net (http://os4depot.net) is still up. i hope it doesn't go down now that i'm bringing attention to it.
 
this is either one heck of a coincidence or some pathetic little ponce thinks he's being impressive by bringing down a few retro-computing sites.
 
-- eliyahu

This is clearly an attack on Amiga. :angry:
There is one sick bastard on the loose out there somewhere!
 
(http://www.atarimania.com/st/screens/hacker_activision_2.gif)
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: cecilia on January 15, 2012, 09:35:36 PM
I'm on http://aros-exec.org/ no problem
same with   http://os4depot.net/

not the others
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: bloodline on January 15, 2012, 09:38:00 PM
A router must have gone down :)
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: cgutjahr on January 15, 2012, 09:51:44 PM
Quote from: Krischan76;675960
I can't connect to amiga-news.de or aminet.net either.
They're on the same server. It was just a hiccup, both sites are working fine again.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: MickJT on January 15, 2012, 10:16:32 PM
Use irc.amigans.net for IRC.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: ChaosLord on January 15, 2012, 11:49:10 PM
Quote from: cgutjahr;675983
They're on the same server. It was just a hiccup, both sites are working fine again.
Whew!  That is welcome news!  It was beginning to feel like 2012, the end of the world...
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: amigasociety on January 16, 2012, 12:58:36 AM
Wonder if the admins took it down to get to the bottom of the recent hacking issues?  Or, maybe it has been brought down somehow and not because they wanted to?

tj
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: giZmo350 on January 16, 2012, 01:00:29 AM
Quote from: amigasociety;676045
Wonder if the admins took it down to get to the bottom of the recent hacking issues? Or, maybe it has been brought down somehow and not because they wanted to?
 
tj

If admins takes it down. there's usually a static maintenance page they direct traffic to.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: Vanilla on January 16, 2012, 02:34:21 AM
Has AmigaWorld been hacked again but this time the entire site? It's been offline since last night and according to Safari the server doesn't exist! :-o
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: kolla on January 16, 2012, 04:55:27 AM
Quote from: dammy;675352
What a hateful statement to make.  Guess haters have to hate.


Considering what I got in my inbox on commodore-amiga.org after pointing out my concerns regarding CUSA's claim on the long abandoned Amiga checkmark, I can only agree.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: Vanilla on January 16, 2012, 06:09:52 AM
I can't believe we still don't know anything. I hope the hackers didn't get in there and kidnap the mods on the internet. :confused:

This is too quiet. Why aren't they telling us anything?

Is CUSA still alive? ;-)
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: weiseb on January 16, 2012, 08:21:36 AM
Quote from: cgutjahr;675983
They're on the same server. It was just a hiccup, both sites are working fine again.
Thanks for the fast reply.
Hope aw.net is back soon, too.
Title: Amigaworld.net
Post by: vox on January 16, 2012, 01:39:33 PM
Hmmm ... cant open AW.net for few days
Temporary trouble or something serious?
Title: Re: Amigaworld.net
Post by: Terminills on January 16, 2012, 01:43:25 PM
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60346
Title: Re: Amigaworld.net
Post by: number6 on January 16, 2012, 01:43:39 PM
Quote from: vox;676129
Hmmm ... cant open AW.net for few days
Temporary trouble or something serious?


Is AW.net down? (http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60346)

#6
Title: Re: Amigaworld.net
Post by: vox on January 16, 2012, 01:45:41 PM
Just noticed it, so its general issue, hope it will be fixed soon (as well as for Aminet)
Title: Re: Amigaworld.net
Post by: number6 on January 16, 2012, 01:49:29 PM
Quote from: vox;676132
Just noticed it, so its general issue, hope it will be fixed soon (as well as for Aminet)



There is nothing wrong with Aminet (http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=675983&postcount=24)

#6
Title: Re: Amigaworld.net
Post by: mousehouse on January 16, 2012, 02:07:00 PM
And for Aminet you can always connect to one of the mirrors directly. This does not provide a mirror of the website, but all the files are accessible.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net was hacked!
Post by: _ThEcRoW on January 16, 2012, 02:15:39 PM
Sorry, posted on wrong thread
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: _ThEcRoW on January 16, 2012, 02:17:39 PM
Quote from: gizmo350;675969
This is clearly an attack on Amiga. :angry:
There is one sick bastard on the loose out there somewhere!
 
(http://www.atarimania.com/st/screens/hacker_activision_2.gif)
Gizmo, what was that capture?. Please explain :)

Thanks in advance!!!
Title: Re: Amigaworld.net
Post by: Karlos on January 16, 2012, 02:23:21 PM
We had three separate threads about this now, so I've combined them.

I have been in touch with some of the staff from the site last last night. I don't know what the exact situation is now, but at around 1am GMT the then available information implied the site and potentially the server on which it is hosted have been been subjected to a concerted attack.

The issues with aminet and aros-exec were coincidental and not part of a wider attack pattern.

Since then, DNS is also been affected. The domain no longer points to the IP address of the server. There are a number of possible scenarios ranging from deliberate DNS cache poisoning to configuration issues or the result of measures taken to mitigate an ongoing DDoS.

I believe the site had a sound data backup policy, so once the immediate problems are fixed and any necessary post-mortem security fixes are in place, hopefully the site should be back up again.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: giZmo350 on January 16, 2012, 02:44:26 PM
Quote from: _ThEcRoW;676137
Gizmo, what was that capture?. Please explain :)

Thanks in advance!!!

It's a screen shot from the game Hacker by Activision. :roflmao:
I thought a die-hard Commodore fan would have spotted it right off!
Just a little humor. :)
Anyhoo, hope that AW.Net is back to normal soon.

Anyone else notice that A.O is a little slow also?
Title: Re: Amigaworld.net
Post by: tomazkid on January 16, 2012, 03:03:48 PM
Quote from: Karlos;676138


I believe the site had a sound data backup policy, so once the immediate problems are fixed and any necessary post-mortem security fixes are in place, hopefully the site should be back up again.



Pretty much so, nightly backups scheme was introduced after the move to the new ISP last year. So in worst case scenario, 24 hours could be lost.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: CritAnime on January 16, 2012, 03:20:57 PM
Quote from: gizmo350;676141

Anyone else notice that A.O is a little slow also?


Yup. Kinda of figure that it was my ISP at fault.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net hacked
Post by: giZmo350 on January 16, 2012, 05:46:21 PM
Yippee! AW.Net is back online! :)
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net hacked
Post by: CritAnime on January 16, 2012, 05:56:58 PM
Are you sure? I still cant access it.

It works... kind of.

I can access the front page but cant see anything else.
Title: Re: Is AW.net down?
Post by: _ThEcRoW on January 16, 2012, 05:58:02 PM
The font used in that screen is very Atarish. That got me somewhat also confused.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net hacked
Post by: giZmo350 on January 16, 2012, 06:05:24 PM
Quote from: CritAnime;676175
Are you sure? I still cant access it.

If you're using a Windows machine, try hitting Ctrl + F5 to flush the cache and reload the page.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net hacked
Post by: CritAnime on January 16, 2012, 06:11:29 PM
Got it working. However when I log in it doesn't show posts ect.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net hacked
Post by: zipper on January 16, 2012, 06:51:09 PM
Seems to be back after server problems.
Title: Re: AmigaWorld.Net hacked
Post by: AJS on January 16, 2012, 06:53:50 PM
Well It seems to be back up now ;-)