The Cellar - View Single Post

Undertoad · 12-22-2005, 10:16 AM

OK! The system that the Cellar lives on should now be considered entirely compromised and rooted by a cracker far too clever to let me know exactly how he operates.

I *think* this is my fault, because I have not run the Cellar machine correctly wrt software levels and some of the software it runs is well out of date.

The system is continually cracked and used, I *think*, to generate DOS attacks. When it does this it completely saturates my connection and makes the system unreachable.

I have been planning for about 6 months now to move it to another, secure, co-located system but one last technical glitch does not permit me to move it immediately. I am waiting on another party to finish what they need to do in order to make it all work.

In the meantime, I have an alarm set to check the Cellar once every minute (!) and sound a loud alarm when it is unreachable. Last night it went off at 2am, 5am and 8am. Approx. The system was therefore "fixed" and DOS attack shut off before anyone could realize it.

But just now I had to drive home from the office where I'm spending 30 hrs a week, and that just cain't happen alla time, so the site may be down a few hours this afternoon if they strike again.

After today I should be home most of the time and able to respond to the alarm

And all I need is for this other person to come through with what they have to do...

The Cellar itself is thoroughly and securely backed up in two different ways, so your actual messages will not be lost, no matter what occurs.

The new system is on automatic update and so this sort of UT-based administration error cannot occur.

12-22-2005, 10:16 AM	#10
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	OK! The system that the Cellar lives on should now be considered entirely compromised and rooted by a cracker far too clever to let me know exactly how he operates. I think this is my fault, because I have not run the Cellar machine correctly wrt software levels and some of the software it runs is well out of date. The system is continually cracked and used, I think, to generate DOS attacks. When it does this it completely saturates my connection and makes the system unreachable. I have been planning for about 6 months now to move it to another, secure, co-located system but one last technical glitch does not permit me to move it immediately. I am waiting on another party to finish what they need to do in order to make it all work. In the meantime, I have an alarm set to check the Cellar once every minute (!) and sound a loud alarm when it is unreachable. Last night it went off at 2am, 5am and 8am. Approx. The system was therefore "fixed" and DOS attack shut off before anyone could realize it. But just now I had to drive home from the office where I'm spending 30 hrs a week, and that just cain't happen alla time, so the site may be down a few hours this afternoon if they strike again. After today I should be home most of the time and able to respond to the alarm And all I need is for this other person to come through with what they have to do... The Cellar itself is thoroughly and securely backed up in two different ways, so your actual messages will not be lost, no matter what occurs. The new system is on automatic update and so this sort of UT-based administration error cannot occur.