Welcome to Geeklog Friday, May 24 2013 @ 04:10 AM EDT
Security issues have been found with Geeklog 1.3.7sr1 (and older versions), one of which actually opens up the possibility to gain Admin control over a Geeklog site. We are therefore releasing Geeklog 1.3.7sr2 and strongly recommend that you upgrade to that version as soon as possible.
There is an upgrade archive (from 1.3.7sr1) available, as well as a full 1.3.7sr2 release. See the documentation for details.
This is the first major security issue with Geeklog that has been found in a long time and that actually enables an attacker to gain Admin control of a site. It was reported to us a few days ago and we are not aware of any sites being hacked as a result of this, since it does require a bit of knowledge to exploit. However, since we do take security seriously, we would like to point out again that it is important that you install this update ASAP.
For those who are still running on versions older than 1.3.7sr1 and who, for whatever reason, can not upgrade the entire site now, please do at least this:
$_CONF['cookie_session'] = 'gl_session';
$_CONF['cookie_name'] = 'geeklog';
$_CONF['cookie_password'] = 'password';
$_CONF['cookie_theme'] = 'theme';
$_CONF['cookie_language'] = 'language';
$_CONF['cookie_lastvisit'] = 'LastVisit';
$_CONF['cookie_lastvisittemp'] = 'LastVisitTemp';
$_CONF['cookie_ip'] = 0;
$_CONF['default_perm_cookie_timeout'] = 604800;
$_CONF['session_cookie_timeout'] = 7200;
$_CONF['cookie_path'] = '/';
$_CONF['cookiedomain'] = '';
$_CONF['cookiesecure'] = 0;
Actual values may differ - just make sure you have all those variables defined.
$_CONF['maximagesperarticle'] = 0;
$_CONF['allow_user_photo'] = 0; in your config.php
The above steps should only be considered a temporary measure. If you're still running on versions older than 1.3.7sr1 (and thus can not upgrade to 1.3.7sr2 by simply replacing the files from the upgrade tarball) your site may be vulnerable to other security issues that have been fixed in previous releases. So now would be a good time to finally make that upgrade!
bye, Dirk
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
The current CVS release has all the new code that will be the 1.3.8 release.
Blaine
With these new settings, image uploading is turned off? Is that altogether? Meaning no images uploading into the database is now allowed??
Sorry if I misunderstand, that is why I ask.
If you upgrade to 1.3.7sr2 right away, you don't need to turn off image upload, since the upgrade includes fixes for this vulnerability.
And, yes, setting both $_CONF['maximagesperarticle'] and $_CONF['allow_user_photo'] to 0 will prevent any form of image upload in Geeklog (at least for the core functions - plugins are a different matter ...).
bye, Dirk
It seems what we are talking about here is completely re-installing the site.
Dang.
I asked then about the menu plugin which replaces the *original* index.php and there weren't any responses except someone saying theirs was working.
But, it seems to me from trying to compare the new index.php and the menu plugin version of index.php that they are different.
So I uninstalled the menu plugin since I wanted the security fix more than the cool menus. I'd like to have both though if someone has a definitive answer.
I'm a happy camper, even if geeklog is something of a black box to me.
time after comparing for differences. Well, everything seemed fine,
but now some of my users are having problems. People who were
given story.edit permissions are being denied, and the error log
shows a blank space where their user name should be (i.e. "User
tried to illegally submit or edit story 20030527171709411 ). All
other aspects of the site treat the person like they're logged in,
except this.
The missing user name in the error.log enty is a bug: The variable $_USER isn't declared as a global variable in function submitstory() in admin/story.php. It shouldn't have anything to do with your problems, though.
bye, Dirk
That seems to have worked. It's ironic that I had the topic/group
permissions set up wrong the whole time, but didn't notice because
of the bug.
My apologies to the developers who provided the upgrade, for
insinuating that the fix was broken. I'm glad I'm wrong!
to the files? I can diff each file but I'm hoping there is a script :-)
Yes, I'm lazy
If I misunderstood the documentation, then apologies in advance.
And yeh .. you really should upgrade ;)
There have always been database changes when the Geeklog version number changes (e.g. from 1.3.6 to 1.3.7, but not from 1.3.7 to 1.3.7sr1).
And 1.3.6 is not a "black sheep version" - not sure why you would think that.
bye, Dirk
bye, Dirk
The error I'm getting from the install script is:
1044: Access denied for user: 'FOO@localhost' to database 'FOO'
Naturally, I've replaced my user and db names with FOO for obfuscation.
What can I do here? The site seems to work, and the user/db/password are clearly working because the site, using the 1.3.7sr2 scripts, is clearly getting accessed and serving up the right stuff. So what would possibly cause the access error?
One strange bit about the setup I have. I have to work with the system that I'm given. By default the web-accessible directory is ~, not ~/public_html/. So, I have geeklog installed in ~/geeklog-1.3.7sr2/ and then copied ~/geeklog-1.3.7sr2/public_html/* to ~ (with cp -a). Clearly config.php and lib-common.php are doing the "right thing" and reading the files from the appropriate locations, but is there some odd bit of the upgrade script that would prevent a setup like this from working? It doesn't seem to make sense to me, but I don't understand php/mysql.
Any and all help appreciated. :^) Can provide more details, if necessary. ;^)
The above post seems to be a local issue with the poster's MySQL install (and I think it was solved on IRC yesterday). Nothing to do with Geeklog or the update.
To repeat: This is a really serious issue. If you know how, you can log into any unpatched site as the Admin. Surely, you don't want that?
bye, Dirk
i run a 1.3.6. (in a subdirectory) and today someone hacked into my site (root) and deleted index.shtml and has put index.php instead.
(that's the way i found out about the exploit, when i got to here ... this reminds me ... there shuld be a mailinglist for admins of geek, where dirk (or someone with proper permission) could inform us about that kind of serrious issues ... maybe this mailing list could be part of geek instalation ... it could (minding user settings) automatically mail-out new articles in folder anouncments, or all of them, or something)
that means that any file can be removed by the hacker (or is it cracker)?
i made temporary changes to my geeklog, hope all goes well with upgrade in next day or so.
ps
anyone can search for
Powered By GeekLog
if he/she has reason(s)
**************************
this really IS a serious issue
i run a 1.3.6. (in a subdirectory) and today someone hacked into my site (root) and deleted index.shtml and has put index.php instead.
(that's the way i found out about the exploit, when i got to here ... this reminds me ... there shuld be a mailinglist for admins of geek, where dirk (or someone with proper permission) could inform us about that kind of serrious issues ... maybe this mailing list could be part of geek instalation ... it could (minding user settings) automatically mail-out new articles in folder anouncments, or all of them, or something)
that means that any file can be removed by the hacker (or is it cracker)?
i made temporary changes to my geeklog, hope all goes well with upgrade in next day or so.
ps
anyone can search for
Powered By GeekLog
if he/she has reason(s)
The issues that are fixed with 1.3.7sr2 should not enable anyone to upload files to your site. You may have another problem in your setup (see, for example, the comments on issues with Gallery in this thread).
Also, there is a geeklog-announce mailing list - the update was announced there. And, of course, the "GL Version Test" link in your Admin menu.
bye, Dirk
i still run v1.3.6.
i hope i don't have another problem
i'm going for geeklog anounce mailinglist right now
version test tells me only abut my current version and currently the newest version of geek.
i know that i'm running old version, but i had a nitemare upgrading to 136 (i got thru yust all the bugs there were, the one that emptyed my database all ower again (couse of incomlete language file) harased me most), and i wanted to upgrade to next clean version, that would be 1.3.8., but it seems that i will have to upgrade to 137 first.
i won't even ask when the 138 release will be released.
nevertheles
i must upgrade one more install of geek that i administer, this one is version 137r1
that means that i can replace old files with new ones.
the only trouble is with config.php
is there any new stuff in it besides warning about alowable html???
version test tells me that i'm still running version 137sr1.
i see that version is read from config.php ...
i suppose i'm encouraged to look at cvs or something for changes of config.php.
if there are yust these two changes, pls let me know.
it's too late now for a 'cvs jurney'.
bye, Dirk
http://www.rootsecure.net/?p=link&l=2069
from 1.3.5 to 1.3.7sr2 ?
Thanks a lot.
- I backed up my /home/geeklog directorio (tar.gz)
- I backed up /var/lib/mysql/database/geeklog*
I imagine I must run something like:
mysql geeklog -u root -p < upgrade_from1.3.5_to_1.3.6
mysql geeklog -u root -p < upgrade_from1.3.6_to_1.3.7
and then unpack the 1.3.7sr2 tar.gz file.
Is that right?
Thanks a lot for your help, guys.
-- Upload 1.3.7sr2 and overwrite your files
-- Use the install script but select upgrade instead of new install
>Results: 3 of 4 tests performed: 3 successful, 0 failed.
>Test passed
>Congratulations! Your Geeklog site is set up properly and ready to go.
Then I ran the install.php script and upgraded database from 1.3.5. But when I visit my geeklog site I get:
1054: Unknown column 'photo' in 'field list'
Any idea?
ALTER DATABASE users ADD photo varchar(128) DEFAULT NULL
in pypmyadmin, and now works. Thanks a lot.
(I'm still in doubt about WHY the automatic upgrade failed).
Anyway, thanks all.
i upgraded succesfully
from 136 to 137sr2
the only thing i would like to mention:
the upgrade instructions don't tell that i should restore public_html/images/articles
and so on
i think the /icons are needed too ...
yust a sugestion ... there arent that many places you can upload images (those public_html/images/articles are from direst upload ie
// Story Settings
$_CONF['maximagesperarticle'] )
the wounreability ...
tnx for the cool software ...
Please help :(