Before reading this - please take a moment to change your password on androidforums.com. This can be done while logged in through your UserCP, or using the "forgot your password?" page if logged out.
I have some unfortunate news to pass along. Yesterday I was informed by our sever/developer team that the server hosting androidforums.com was compromised and the website's database was accessed. While the breach is most likely harmless there are important and potential pitfalls, and we want to provide as much helpful information to our users as possible (without getting too technical).
The trust of our users is extremely important and several staff members worked through the afternoon, evening, night, and morning to ensure we're doing everything possible to regain complete security.
Here are the facts:
- The exploit used has been identified and resolved. The server has been further hardened and extra "just in case" actions have been taken.. and will continue to be taken.
- All code that resides in the database and the file system has been thoroughly reviewed for malicious edits and uploads.
- No other sites in our network appear to have been accessed (we're triple checking).
- The user table of AndroidForum's database was (at a minimum) accessed. While we can't prove or disprove whether or not the data was downloaded (due to the way the data was transferred), it's completely possible.. and we've taken action assuming this is the case.
- Information in the user database includes: Unique ids, usernames, emails, hashed (encoded) and salted passwords, registration IP addresses, usergroup memberships, infraction levels, last time online, last post date, post count... as well as far less critical things like number of PMs, visitor messages, last online dates, and some vbulletin options set in your UserCP.
- Immediately following the incident, all ~100 staff were notified of a pending password change - and all passwords to were changed to random strings. Almost all are back in with new passwords. Because gaining access to a staff member account could pose the biggest threat, we first moved to secure these accounts.
What Probably Happened
This was, in our current opinion, most likely an e-mail harvesting attempt. A spammer could theoretically attempt to bulk e-mail all AF users with the user database. Luckily, GMail and similar e-mail services offer a "spam" button that helps it to collectively identify and automatically filter potential spam.
It's also absolutely possible that nothing of consequence happened. There is some chance they did not get enough of the database to matter, did this for fun to see if they could, or will not move forward with any plans after finding out we're actively investigating. This is a serious offense and you can best bet we are doing just that.
What Could Happen?
We take matters like these incredibly seriously and want to make sure you're warned of ALL the possibilities, regardless of how slim the chances. You can never be too safe, so we're asking you to consider the possibilities and protect accordingly.
- This could be someone who is upset with us who hopes to use the information against staff
- With username, email, and IP information, a skilled hacker could pretend to be other users.
- They could blackmail us and threaten to publish the information publicly.
- Knowing your IP one can get a general idea of where you are located in the world, though most your IPs are dynamic and will change before too long anyway.
- With a username and hashed password one could open a session with accounts on other sites that use the same credentials - if they gain file level access to that site first. These were salted passwords which adds to the complexity, but nonetheless we recommend playing it safe.
What should you do?
Although we're confident the threat is neutralized it is still highly recommended that you change your password here and on other sites where you use the same username/password. This can be done while logged in through your UserCP, or using the "forgot your password?" page if logged out. You can also contact me via PM or Contact Form and we will help you if you need.
No website wants to make an announcement like this. I assure you we, as the Neverstill Team, could not apologize profusely enough. Websites come under attack all time time - and sometimes the bad guys make it in. Unfortunately for us, yesterday was our time. We have been attacked before but never breached, and please know we are going to continue to do everything in our power to ensure it doesn't happen again.
If you have any questions please let us know - we will do our best to answer them. I will leave this thread open for discussion as long as it remains productive.
-Phases, Rob, and the Neverstill Team
UPDATE: I forgot to mention. If you are using an Android Application to access the forums (Tapatalk, Phandroid App) - they will not register the password change and may flood your email with "someone has tried to access your account" emails. Unfortunately the only advice I have for that is to uninstall/re-install the app, if you cannot change your password from within.
UPDATE 2: If you are requesting account deletions, please email me at phases@phandroid.com with the email account you registered with. Thanks for understanding.
UPDATE 3:Rob's weighs in on why no mass email was sent - here.
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All I can say is WOW, in the diligence and efficient fast work in neutralizing this matter, you guys Rock and I am sure every member here knows that you have there best security and interest in mind. Thanks for all you do and we all appreciate the hard work that you all do to keep us protected and this site running, Well Done
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Absolutely fantastic, informative post. Thank you and the entire staff for your diligence in not only responding to the breach, but keeping us so well informed. KUDOS to all of you!
Thank you so very much for continuing the awesome protection you guys give every member. I applaud your work as does everyone else I'm sure. Thanks again for the announcement.
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All I can say is WOW, in the diligence and efficient fast work in neutralizing this matter, you guys Rock and I am sure every member here knows that you have there best security and interest in mind. Thanks for all you do and we all appreciate the hard work that you all do to keep us protected and this site running, Well Done
could not have said it better myself.
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The Following User Says Thank You to Ramzes13 For This Useful Post:
After changing my password, I just received this email:
Dear wetbiker7,
Someone has tried to log into your account on Android Forums with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes.
The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: [Redacted]
After changing my password, I just received this email:
Dear wetbiker7,
Someone has tried to log into your account on Android Forums with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes.
The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: [Redacted]
Whoever hacked AF got my password and tried to access my account. That sux man!
Thanks for the heads up. Glad I changed my password.
You will need to change your password in any forum app that you use (e.g. AF forum app, tapatalk, forum runner, etc.) or they will continue to try and log in under your old credentials.
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i am also very surprised at how quick a solution was offered to everyone, it didnt take any time, and the matter got resolved very quickly. I am also glad to know that this community will gladly inform people of situations that arise, and want you to protect yourself in every way possible.
I say thank you to everyone involved, you guys/gals are what makes this place the best place to come to.
like you said Things like this always have a possibility of happening. It seems as though it was handled accordingly. So thanks for that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VoidedSaint
i am also very surprised at how quick a solution was offered to everyone, it didnt take any time, and the matter got resolved very quickly. I am also glad to know that this community will gladly inform people of situations that arise, and want you to protect yourself in every way possible.
I say thank you to everyone involved, you guys/gals are what makes this place the best place to come to.
I agree. The MODs jumped on this 1 and got the word out pretty quickly. Nice job people.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to wetbiker7 For This Useful Post:
After changing my password, I just received this email:
Dear wetbiker7,
Someone has tried to log into your account on Android Forums with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes.
The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: [Redacted]
__________________________________________________ ______________
Whoever hacked AF got my password and tried to access my account. That sux man!
Thanks for the heads up. Glad I changed my password. I don't know if this IP will help you guys but if it does.... bust their ass will ya.
Sometimes that's an error generated by our app trying to log in or other web confusion.
To see if it's that or something worse, please google: my ip
And compare to that found in that sort of email.
To Phases and the Neverstill Team - thanks for being never still on our protection!
i am also very surprised at how quick a solution was offered to everyone, it didnt take any time, and the matter got resolved very quickly. I am also glad to know that this community will gladly inform people of situations that arise, and want you to protect yourself in every way possible.
I say thank you to everyone involved, you guys/gals are what makes this place the best place to come to.
The sysadmin Android Forums - View Profile: mAcRoS has set up a pretty snazzy intrusion detection system which gives us fast alerts if something seeming to gone bad. He normally pings me about it and then i do the coding bit of it. While he tends to feed me info from logs etc..
really its a simple mater of "no sleep" + "magic" == "fast turnarounds"
Further to EM's post, keep in mind that you will have a separate IP when connecting over your mobile data connection, so make sure to check that one too.
So far we have not seen any of the login error emails that cannot be explained by our own devices logging in witht he wrong password. We're more than happy to help people check their IP, however.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wetbiker7
After changing my password, I just received this email:
Dear wetbiker7,
Someone has tried to log into your account on Android Forums with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes.
The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: [Redacted]
Whoever hacked AF got my password and tried to access my account. That sux man!
Thanks for the heads up. Glad I changed my password. I don't know if this IP will help you guys but if it does.... bust their ass will ya.
Wetbiker, I've edited out that IP from your post. It would appear that you are on a dyanmic IP and the one you posted is from the range of IPs your internet provider usually provides you. So nothing to worry about there.
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I tried posting a few times here and got security token invalid. Looks like its working now. Just thought I'd give you a heads up in case this might have been something caused by what happened.
*Edit* I just noticed the original message I tried to post in the attached photo appeared when I tried to "thank" Phases Op. I just went back and noticed my name wasn't in the thanks box after I hit the thanks button but as I said, its all working now.
Red Hare, don't worry. If you have trouble just submit a contact form and let us know, I'll get ya right back in.
OK, there was a brief glitch, I did find my password, and I have changed it, when I returned to click thabnks, i got error message. Sio i exeted android foru, and now baclk on was able to click thanks, thansk, and good luck
Last edited by Phases; July 10th, 2012 at 05:21 PM.
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Am I the only one upset at having to (again) change all my forum and email passwords? We hear about hacking attempts all the time. The time to harden the servers was when you heard of other servers being compromised.... waaay before last week.
I'm seriously hoping this was a wake-up call and you'll be more pro-active going forward.
Also, this little message at the top of the forum is not enough enough. I was on this forum for 3 hours before noticing the message at the top. I believe the standard is to EMAIL all users. Not everyone checks in daily. Not everyone is active.
Congrats for keeping the server up and checking for malware, but IMO, there's room for improvement.
i will let my friends over at android.net know about these attacks they use the same software and tell them to be on the look out for these kinds of attacks this is serious stuff
The team on this site is amazing, they jumped right on it in a split second. Had all staff aware of pending password changes. Its because of the incredible team here that makes me feel happy to be a guide!
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Would the username/passwords not be encrypted in the database?
Generally username aren't but the passwords are. I think (if they were able to grab the DB) they may be able to gain access using the encrypted password to other site where you used the same one. It is very tricky as they would need to know your username as well as well as gain file access to that site. They shouldn't be able to decrypt the password either as that is damn near impossible assuming the site software uses a reasonable encryption methodology and the key isn't ridiculously simple.
i am also very surprised at how quick a solution was offered to everyone, it didnt take any time, and the matter got resolved very quickly. I am also glad to know that this community will gladly inform people of situations that arise, and want you to protect yourself in every way possible.
I say thank you to everyone involved, you guys/gals are what makes this place the best place to come to.
A "solution" shouldn't have been needed. This type of thing should not have happened in the first place.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wetbiker7
After changing my password, I just received this email:
Dear wetbiker7,
Someone has tried to log into your account on Android Forums with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes.
The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: [Redacted]
I have been getting this same message all day since I changed my password and finally realized its my Phandroid that is trying to login with my old password. I updated my password on the app on my phone and it is all fixed now.
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Last edited by agentc13; July 10th, 2012 at 10:25 PM.
Reason: foxed quote tag
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Would the username/passwords not be encrypted in the database?
They are one way hashed. They are not clear text passwords, like the only way i could see what a users password was is if i got there one way hashed password and then tried every combination of characters i could think of run it through the same hasing algorithm and if the two match then i know your password. Its actually quite secure if you can throttle how fast you can try combinations of characters like we do with only allowing 5 attempts and then waiting 15 minutes, but if they have just the hash they can try many combinations very fast with a program. If you password is very random then it probably won't be found.
For instance lets say you had a password of just lower case letters and it was 8 letters long. that would be 23^8 == 78310985281 different possible passwords, that in the hackers "worse case" have to be tried and hashed, not impossible, but not trivial either. If you had upper case letters as well as lower case then 46^8 == 20047612231936 so even harder. This assumes that your password is just random letters, if you have some word or combination of words you can find in the dictionary, or a birthday, or something else common, then they could try these first and make the attack easier.
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A "solution" shouldn't have been needed. This type of thing should not have happened in the first place.
As someone who spent 10+ years as a Web Master for a $26 billion a year manufacturing company managing 50+ web domains (with a 40+ person IT team in charge of security), I can say that as admins and staff get smarter so do hackers. The CIA, FBI, credit card companies and processers, etc. get hacked every day.
Also, this little message at the top of the forum is not enough enough. I was on this forum for 3 hours before noticing the message at the top.
i actually agree with this as well. It's 4 tiny words in Red. Most users ignore the bold letters that says sticky
It would probably be better to have a bigger banner notification at the top of the forum. It too took me an hour or so before i saw it today once i got logged in.
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I'm not saying other sites would not do this, but I'm glad that AF admins chose to disclose this information. I think it was not only the right thing to do, but also responsible and shows that they have our best interests at heart.
And anyone who reuses email/password/username might want to change those other ones as well.... never hurts right
I'm not saying other sites would not do this, but I'm glad that AF admins chose to disclose this information. I think it was not only the right thing to do, but also responsible and shows that they have our best interests at heart.
And anyone who reuses email/password/username might want to change those other ones as well.... never hurts right
I agree with you entirely on this. I changed my password immediately, and I also changed my email password, though they are different. Could not hurt to be safe anyway.
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