Issues With The Forums

[PanzerGuitar00]

I've been having a bunch of issues lately with the forums throwing up this:

and refusing to load. It goes away eventually, but takes a bit. Maybe it has something to do with that huge data breach or whatever that happened a few days ago?

 

[Theron]

This should probably be in General, but it's not just you.

 

[PanzerGuitar00]

This should probably be in General, but it's not just you.

Yeah youre probably right but too late now and ok good to know its not just a me thing. hope they get it fixed soon.

 

[PanzerGuitar00]

you know one of the compromised passkeys or whatever was literally just "4"? As in you type a single number, hit enter, and youre in. these are the people who we trust the entire worlds data infrastructure on.

we are so fucked.

 

[Theron]

0...4 is no more or less likely as a random number than any other.

 

[PanzerGuitar00]

0...4 is no more or less likely as a random number than any other.

This isn't the combination for your luggage (guess the reference), this is for extremely vital and sensitive website security! Having one of these passkeys basically means you can crack a site open and play with its guts and there's nothing anyone can do to stop you short of pulling the plug and going completely offline.

 

[Animefan666]

0...4 is no more or less likely as a random number than any other.

It was supposed to be a 116 digit security code...

 

[Theron]

Would you guess 4?

 

[Animefan666]

Would you guess 51458589563637911370340349302110325660340592412285597015565083222243787545328351643108421471498087167388872453284765?

 

[Lostname475]

Would you guess 4?

if I was brute forcing it with an algorithm probably yeah

 

[Punccline]

 

[Gedan]

Short version:

The actual error is XF has a memory table used to store active session data, so that the online users list works. Some dipshit botfarm keeps trying to scrape the forum data at insane rates, filling the memory table up with trash guest sessions from unique IP addresses. Table fills up, forum fails to write session info, refuses to show pages.

 

[Punccline]

Would you guess 4?

So the way you brute force stuff like this is that you make a program repeatedly enter numbers, starting with 0 and increasing each time (1, 2, 3, etc.) until it eventually gets the right number by entering every possible combination. Infinite Monkey Theorem.

You're supposed to make the number stupidly big so that a brute force program takes so long to find the correct number that it's either impossible or you can simply change the number by the time they find it.

If the number it has to find is literally single digit, your security can be broken through via brute force in a matter of seconds.

This is part of how websites determine whether or not your password is "strong". How long would it take a machine entering every possible combination of letters and numbers to eventually land on your password if it starts from 0 and works its way up?

 

[Vicson_Steele]

That's what was happening? This is dangerous! It could collect all of our personal information if it hasn't already!

 

[Nynec]

That's what was happening? This is dangerous! It could collect all of our personal information if it hasn't already!

Nope, what was happening here was a ddos attack, i noticed sometimes the amount of guests online were getting to above 1000.

 

[Punccline]

That's what was happening? This is dangerous! It could collect all of our personal information if it hasn't already!

I don't think this is the kind of attack where they collect internal information like that. And if it is, what are they gonna collect exactly? The only thing on here is your email.

 

[Vicson_Steele]

I don't think this is the kind of attack where they collect internal information like that. And if it is, what are they gonna collect exactly? The only thing on here is your email.

If they can break into websites they can break into emails or better yet make a map out of you based on how many other places you used the same email at. I don't know much about ai or hacking so maybe it's just me being paranoid as fuck.

 

[Gedan]

They aren't attempting to login or do anything particularly malicious - they're just crawling all the forum post messages and scraping the data.

 

[Gedan]

Also nobody needs to break into websites for that kinda tracking data -- it's just gonna get sold or traded out in exchange for other data. It's probably safe to assume any sufficiently corporate bottom-line chasing website will just be doing that as a matter of course in tyool 2026. Best you can do is figure out some means of having throwaway/temporary email addresses or just stop using the internet.

 

[Animefan666]

Not like our data isn't already being collected by the likes of Google, Microsoft, etc and put in the hands of the most tight-fisted data brokers like Intelius.

 

[PanzerGuitar00]

Short version:

The actual error is XF has a memory table used to store active session data, so that the online users list works. Some dipshit botfarm keeps trying to scrape the forum data at insane rates, filling the memory table up with trash guest sessions from unique IP addresses. Table fills up, forum fails to write session info, refuses to show pages.

Well shit. Any idea of and when it'll stop? Or do we just have to weather the storm?

 

[Gedan]

I've cranked the setting down as low as I can take it, and I'm investigating some shit to try and mitigate it some.

 

[Lostname475]

it has greatly improved things on my end at least

 

[Punccline]

Yeah, dunno what the side effects are but I haven't seen the site crash yet today.

 

[PanzerGuitar00]

I've cranked the setting down as low as I can take it, and I'm investigating some shit to try and mitigate it some.

Well don't murder yourself over this. I'm sure it'll be fine. Keep up the great work!

 

[Tinman]

If the number it has to find is literally single digit, your security can be broken through via brute force in a matter of seconds.

This is part of how websites determine whether or not your password is "strong". How long would it take a machine entering every possible combination of letters and numbers to eventually land on your password if it starts from 0 and works its way up?

Password difficulty has been brought up. Now I have to post this.

 

[Lostname475]

My mild paranoid suspicion is that its to encourage people to use password managers instead

 

[PanzerGuitar00]

Password difficulty has been brought up. Now I have to post this.
View attachment 44157

.... fuck that's actually genius.