Forum Hacked!

[victor joshua]

Hi guys, please help me out! my forum africapchome.com has been hacked by unknown person.

i build up this nice forum and i have spend so much money in generating traffic to it over the months, recently I changed my password because I was suspecting somethings going on without my knowledge. But when I log in to my cpanel yesterday it was telling me invalid.

could it be that i have been hacked or somthing?

So if anyone is able to help me out


Thanks
Victor Joshua

[madaboutlinux]

Did you contacted your hosting provider? It looks like you are on a Shared package and in such a case, the hosting provider should assist you in a better way since they have root access to the server.

If you own the server, have someone to look into the logs which will help to figure out what exactly happened there.

It could be that, you changed the password and now you are not providing the correct password while accessing cPanel. Are you able to access the admin area of the forum? Make sure the files/databases do not have additional code in them and the admin details aren't changed.

[Infopro]

You really need to contact your host about this, no one here can help get you back in.

[victor joshua]

I reported the same issue to my host and he said he will try to see how he can help me out. but no solution for now.

[translater]

change the permession of your secript inndex to 444 for just read not edit..

[Spiral]

I reported the same issue to my host and he said he will try to see how he can help me out. but no solution for now.

Advising and helping hosting providers deal with security and hacking issues is my primary career and expertise area. You should have your host contact me as I can really do a lot to help them out.

Regarding you personally though ....

i build up this nice forum and i have spend so much money in generating traffic to it over the months, recently I changed my password because I was suspecting somethings going on without my knowledge. But when I log in to my cpanel yesterday it was telling me invalid.

First item is that password changes don't always update the FTP passwords so those might need to be synchronized which might explain why you would not be able to login if your password troubles are FTP related.

If you cannot login to Cpanel then you will need to have your host reset your password so you can get back in again. If the host allows email resets, you could do that but that would tell me profile wise that the host in that case is less experienced with security matters. Make sure if the host resets your password, they also "synchronize ftp passwords" as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Now once you are back in your account again. Are you locked out of your forums (password there too?). If so you should be able to reset your forum password very easily as you only need access to your cpanel to be able to do that and worse case scenario just updated the database directly through phpMyAdmin or related.

Regarding your forums themselves ---

What makes you suspect that there is a problem? Changes? Activity? Logs? Etc? What exactly made you "suspicious"?

The answer to those questions would help greatly in knowing where to focus attentions regarding your web site and forums.

Now jumping subjects a bit but so that you are aware. Hacking sites by infecting the site owner's home computer with a password stealing virus or trojan is becoming more and more common these days. I am mentioning this because you said you changed your password but now cannot access anything. As a precautionary note, I would recommend doing fully virus and trojan / spyware scans of your home computer.

Hope this helps.

[Infopro]

His forums are being pounded with spam from what I can see. His host should disable the site if the user cannot get back in.

I reported the same issue to my host and he said he will try to see how he can help me out. but no solution for now.

It's time for you to find a new provider I believe. The one you're using now appears to be clueless.

[Shrex]

Hello pal

If you are able to log into FTP or Cpanel any one of them atleast, and also if you have an SSH access i could try out bringing your site up.

If you want me to, then you are always welcome to PM me.

Regards!
Shrex