XF 1.5 Node Delete

[Louise Williams]

To add to the general weirdness going on, on my forum right now (very concerned that I am literally in the process of being hacked by an ex member tech wiz) we suddenly have a protected forum showing up in the main forum list - but it is not actually "there".

That is - everyone can see the forum but not the contents, when you click the forum it says it is not found. It appears in the node tree, but when I go to delete it, it says that it can't be deleted because it does not exist.

Thoughts?

Verging on panic right now.

 

[Paul B]

I would suggest at this point, coupled with the other issue relating to the missing table, you likely need to restore from a backup.

It's impossible to know what other tables/data are missing and the inevitable corruption there will be.

The first step though would be to determine how this person is gaining access and prevent that.
If it is a person and isn't related to server issues, or even a rogue add-on.

Then you can look at restoring a backup, which unfortunately is going to result in a loss of any content created since the backup was taken.

 

[wang]

To add to the general weirdness going on, on my forum right now (very concerned that I am literally in the process of being hacked by an ex member tech wiz) we suddenly have a protected forum showing up in the main forum list - but it is not actually "there".

That is - everyone can see the forum but not the contents, when you click the forum it says it is not found. It appears in the node tree, but when I go to delete it, it says that it can't be deleted because it does not exist.

Thoughts?

Verging on panic right now.

Can you please post the exact error message that you are getting? Because if the forum is appearing in the node tree, and then you get the not exist message, it sounds very strange. Another thing to do, is to contact your host and ask them to check their logs for any suspicious activities or actions in your forum.

 

[Louise Williams]

Sorry - hosting thinks we are currently under some sort of SQL injection attack - I have no idea - none - how to stop that. The last database dl we took is from 2 weeks ago before we migrated because the hosting company didn't bother to turn on our daily backups (calling it an oversight)

Does anyone know anything about SQL injection attacks? I feel sick. Our forum is a charity forum that supports people with mental health issues - we have thousands of members who need it.

 

[wang]

Can you ask your host to give you more details on the attack on your forum? If your last database backup is done on your previous software, then I am afraid that the only option is to install your previous forum software, restore the backup, and then migrate to xenforo again.

But let us hope that it will not come to that. Can you please post here the exact error message that you were getting from that node? I am hoping that maybe there will be something that we can try and fix it, so you will not have to resort to the dabatabse restore and the migration process again.

 

[Louise Williams]

All the nodes are now gone from my homepage - all the posts are still there as in I can navigate to a post via "members" and looking at their posts but I now have "page not found" for homepage and for every node page. Apparently we have also been locked out of our Cpanel.

I am literally watching the whole forum disintegrate in front of my eyes and I can't do anything about it. Hosting say we have to talk to "our developer" - we don't HAVE a developer.

The backup I have was taken from the old server but it was still xenforo we were running at that time.

Apologies for not being very coherent - having a meltdown.

 

[wang]

All the nodes are now gone from my homepage - all the posts are still there as in I can navigate to a post via "members" and looking at their posts but I now have "page not found" for homepage and for every node page. Apparently we have also been locked out of our Cpanel.

I am literally watching the whole forum disintegrate in front of my eyes and I can't do anything about it. Hosting say we have to talk to "our developer" - we don't HAVE a developer.

The backup I have was taken from the old server but it was still xenforo we were running at that time.

Can you please post here the link to your forum? Or you can send it to me on a pc if you do not want to post it publicly.

Apologies for not being very coherent - having a meltdown.

No need to apologise.

 

[Louise Williams]

Thank you so much I sent you a PM

 

[Paul B]

There's really not much we can do if the database has inconsistent data due to someone or something deleting tables and content.

You will have to restore from a backup - it's the only way to recover the content and ensure the integrity of the database.

The first step I would probably take though is to find a new host.

 

[wang]

Thank you so much I sent you a PM

You are most welcome ma'am.

There's really not much we can do if the database has inconsistent data due to someone or something deleting tables and content.

You will have to restore from a backup - it's the only way to recover the content and ensure the integrity of the database.

The first step I would probably take though is to find a new host.

By reading the posts of the OP, I suspect that the node is still there and not gone. Also the page not found error that she is getting might be due to missing files. If so, then there is hope to get the forum back without needing to revert to the backup, especially seeing that it is a little old and a lot of content will be missing.

I fully agree with finding a new host. It does not looks like they have been handling things in a professional manner.

 

[Paul B]

This isn't the only issue.
At least one table was deleted from the database overnight.

There could be other issues so it's impossible to know whether there are data inconsistencies.

 

[wang]

I was not aware of that. I was being optimistic because I did not see any error message posted about table and other content being deleted. In that case, the only thing would be, as you adviced above, to restore the latest backup and then search for a new host.