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#1 2004-05-25 05:15:56

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

*Hey, I noticed on accessing the New Mars web page today first a nearly completely white screen with a message (in black letters) centered at the top of the page reading:  "Ammelie Ownz You"  and "Please secure your server."  It's followed, beneath, with a quote of Noam Chomsky. 

Then the New Mars forums and articles, etc., appears beneath.

Anyone else see this today?  Hacker? 

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#2 2004-05-25 08:48:53

GCNRevenger
Member
From: Earth
Registered: 2003-10-14
Posts: 6,056

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

Yep. D*** script kiddies... Maybe a visitor to the Free Chat political threads and got all worked up that somebody disagrees with him/her/it.


[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]

[i]The glass is at 50% of capacity[/i]

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#3 2004-05-25 15:31:15

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

You think that's bad? take a look at AresArise.com (a.k.a. Outpost 8 forum)

http://www.aresarise.com/Outpost8/]hacked...

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#4 2004-05-25 16:53:03

Adrian
Moderator
From: London, United Kingdom
Registered: 2001-09-04
Posts: 642
Website

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

It's really quite annoying. I imagine they exploited a hole in Ikonboard or Moveable Type. In any case, minimal damage, fixed now.


Editor of [url=http://www.newmars.com]New Mars[/url]

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#5 2004-05-25 17:26:22

Josh Cryer
Moderator
Registered: 2001-09-29
Posts: 3,830

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

Did you bork out how they actually got in? Would be good to close up any holes so no other kiddies could pull the same thing.


Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
--------
The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

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#6 2004-05-27 18:56:27

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

WARNING!!

    I have just informed Adrian, for a second time, that somebody is sending me virus-infected emails with his name on them.

    Make sure your anti-virus software is up to date and BEWARE!
                                            sad


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#7 2004-05-27 19:14:02

Josh Cryer
Moderator
Registered: 2001-09-29
Posts: 3,830

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

With Adrian's name on them? Could you be more specific? Could be a coincidence... I get a lot of virus email (in fact, viruses are the majority of spam that I recieve), sometimes the name is similar to people I know (but the email address is never the same). Is the return email address the same as Adrains?

Just asking these questions because Adrian is going to be away for a bit. If he is infected, I don't think he can do much about it, but I reckon I (and others here) would've got one too...


Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
--------
The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

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#8 2004-05-28 04:05:34

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

Hi Josh.
    I delete these things as soon as I can - viruses make me nervous - so I don't have it in front of me at the moment. But it was from Adrian@newmars.com.

    What do you make of it?    ???


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#9 2004-05-28 05:20:37

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

Hi Josh.
    I delete these things as soon as I can - viruses make me nervous - so I don't have it in front of me at the moment. But it was from Adrian@newmars.com.

    What do you make of it?    ???

*Someone's created a domain name (?) -- not sure that's the correct term.  I've seen this on Usenet (a good place to stay AWAY from, IMO) quite frequently...people can create special e-mail names like "Ihate----{fill in specific name}@kissmybackside.com" -- ANYTHING they want to name it (before and after the "@"), they can. 

I have lately been receiving UNmarked e-mail; it just shows up as "[none]" in the Subject Line portion of the e-mail and there is absolutely *no* designation for the sender.  How that happens I have no idea.  But anyway, I've -not- received any e-mail similar to what Shaun's getting.

I have a hunch it may be a disgruntled person Adrian recently banned and whose threads he deleted (said person will go unnamed by me...).  But it'd be ironic if it is that person, because I don't remember Shaun interacting with him at all.

Just my speculation.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#10 2004-05-28 05:53:41

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

Interesting input, Cindy.
    Thanks for the information.
    There are certainly some very sick puppies out there!
                                              sad


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#11 2004-05-28 06:30:02

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

There are certainly some very sick puppies out there!
                                              sad

*I'll say. 

BTW, if Adrian kept (for whatever reason) any private exchanges he had with that guy and if there's a way to open a letter from whoever is posing as Adrian *without* opening the virus attachment itself, one could compare ISP numbers...if they match, culprit caught.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#12 2004-05-28 12:33:23

Josh Cryer
Moderator
Registered: 2001-09-29
Posts: 3,830

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

There are two possiblities I can think of, the first being that Adrian got infected and a virus went out to everyone in his contacts (I think this is unlikely as I would've gotten one from him, I think; or at least others here would've). Or a spammer harvested all the email addresses on this site that they could find (the front page comments do have some of our email addresses- I usually put in fakeshemp-withan-s.com instead of my actual address, I assume people can figure it out, almost certain that's how our friend Cindy is mentioning got my email address), and chose the web admin's address as the "sent from," because that could be pretty darn convincing to unsuspecting users. "Whoa, Adrian is emailing me, this must be important!"

It would've been nice to have gotten the IP. If it (a virus with the "sent from" field indicating adrian@newmars.com) happens again, export the mail to an .eml if you use outlook Shaun, I would enjoy looking at the headers, heh. Be careful out there, though.


Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
--------
The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

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#13 2004-05-28 15:42:00

dicktice
Member
From: Nova Scotia, Canada
Registered: 2002-11-01
Posts: 1,764

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

Did you bork out how they actually got in? Would be good to close up any holes so no other kiddies could pull the same thing.

Please explain "bork out" to the jargon-deprived contributors amongst us.

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#14 2004-05-28 16:44:28

Mundaka
Banned
Registered: 2004-01-11
Posts: 322

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

neutral


Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra

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#15 2004-05-28 23:00:58

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

Thanks for the advice, Josh. And I'd be happy to comply if only I had any idea what you're talking about!   tongue

    I've never heard of a ".eml" and wouldn't have a clue how to export my mail to it. Nor do I know why I'd even want to! ... Though I'm sure it must be the sensible thing to do.
    And I'm sure looking at "headers" would be very revealing in this matter but I'm at a loss to understand why, since I don't know what they are.

    I'm sure it's all quite simple if you know the jargon and have a mental picture of how the system works. Unfortunately, I'm in the dark on both counts!   sad

    My last computer was so messed up with viruses I just junked it and started again.
    That's why, if my anti-virus software warns me I'm under attack, I tend to delete almost everything in sight, unopened, and ask questions later! Crude, I admit, but so far very effective.
                                                   smile

    [P.S. Josh, I do appreciate your attempts to help all of us understand what's going on with these viral attacks on me. Any sarcasm in the above post is levelled only at my own ineptitude with computers and not at anyone else - certainly not you.
     P.P.S. I have to admit, along with Dicktice, I'm also curious as to the origin of the term "bork out". I'm familiar with the British expression "suss out", which I suspect means the same thing, and which I've always assumed was based on a bastardisation of one of the tenses of the French verb, 'savoir', to know(?) ]


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#16 2004-05-29 01:06:49

Mundaka
Banned
Registered: 2004-01-11
Posts: 322

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

neutral


Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra

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#17 2004-05-29 13:35:25

Josh Cryer
Moderator
Registered: 2001-09-29
Posts: 3,830

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

Ahh, "bork" is just an invention of myself. I just meant "figure out." smile


Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
--------
The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

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#18 2004-05-29 17:29:36

Mundaka
Banned
Registered: 2004-01-11
Posts: 322

Re: Weird message at newmars.com

neutral


Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra

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