Host Infection
Posted on | October 18, 2008 at 9:55 am | 3 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: Mystery blog option updates.
Okay, this is getting kind of ridiculous. Someone or something really doesn’t want people posting comments on my blog, and I don’t think it’s me.
First, an entry I posted had “allow comments” unchecked. I can believe this is a problem with WordPress 2.6, since it’s happened a couple of times since I upgraded to it. Some other individual posting options I didn’t touch have gotten mysteriously checked or unchecked when I re-save an entry. That especially happens a lot with the post categories. The post-writing user interface on WP 2.6 is very bad (I liked the old one better) and I hope they fix it for 2.7. At the very least, they can position elements more ergonomically so that less vertical scrolling is required. For example, put the posting options back on the side instead of at the bottom. So, I’m willing to chalk this up to the wonky WP 2.6 interface.
Then, the global setting for “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” on the Global Settings page enigmatically was enabled. Since there are no registered users for my blog except me, that meant no one could comment. I know I haven’t changed anything on the Global Settings page for a long time, though I’ve probably accessed/viewed it a few times in the last couple of weeks. Again, maybe it’s just WordPress 2.6 doing something weird, but that seems unlikely.
Finally, after I disabled that setting, then I started noticing that all comments being posted were getting caught in the comment moderation queue, which means I have to approve them before they are posted. At first I thought people were using banned words or including too many URLs or doing something else that makes comments get sent to that queue. But all the latest comments by my regular commenters looked really innocuous to me (even InfK’s). So I checked the Discussion Settings and suddenly the “An administrator must always approve the comment” option was checked. Again, that’s something I know I’ve never enabled. And I haven’t even been in that settings page for a long time. Very weird.
The only possibilities I could see for this happening are:
- WordPress is messing up somehow and setting those options when I enter the page. But that sounds unlikely, because web interfaces don’t usually work that way and because I haven’t been hitting “Save” on those pages. Besides, I haven’t been able to recreate that.
- Someone has my blog admin password and is going in and changing settings on me. If so, why just change the ones related to comments? Especially to restrict commenting? Besides, my password is pretty hard to guess, if I do say so myself. (Sure, I gave out a password to Sue back when she was posting my pre-written entries during my Mexico vacation, but I changed it after I got back. Not that I don’t trust Sue, but I’m pretty sure she likes celery and cilantro, which makes me wonder about her.) Nevertheless, I have changed my password again, just in case.
- I am getting very forgetful in my old age, or am sleepwalking, and am changing these options and not telling myself.
But the more I thought about it, the more I kept coming back to something. Recently, my webhost Powweb has been very concerned about spammers and MySQL performance. They’ve even repeatedly sent out e-mails containing the following advisory:
*****************************************************************
CHECK YOUR APPLICATIONS: DON’T GET SPAMMED OR ABUSED
Be sure to closely monitor your applications — don’t let them
get spammed or abused! These tips will help keep you protected,
as well as keep our MySQL servers running at peak performance:
* Check your bulletin boards, forums, blogs, etc.,
for spammers. Fake posts and comments compromise the
integrity of your site and slow down database performance.
* Turn off Guest or Anonymous posting to these applications.
* Require registration, and registration confirmation. Spammers
can use programs to automatically sign up accounts on your
site and start posting bad content; requiring registration
confirmation can reduce this risk.
* Keep your code up to date. New releases of applications often
include built-in spam protection and can greatly reduce the
number of queries and amount of bandwidth you use.
* Turn off unused applications. Just because you don’t link to
an application anymore doesn’t mean it’s not getting traffic.
*****************************************************************
Very suspicious! It makes me wonder if they’ve got some backend script running on their servers that periodically checks the MySQL databases for WordPress installations and changes those commenting options directly in the data. I’ve never heard of anyone doing something like this, and no one on the Powweb community forums is complaining about it, so maybe I’m just being paranoid.
I haven’t felt the need to enact any of their draconian measures because 1) I don’t really get all that much in the way of spam comments, and 2) When I do, it usually comes in waves and it all gets caught by Askimet, as well as a few other WordPress anti-spam methods I’ve got enabled.
So, I’m just going to see how this all plays out and if any of those options get set back. If so, I’m going to start questioning Big Brother. And if they are responsible, they sure ain’t going to keep my business. That kind of thing is just reprehensible, especially if they do it behind your back. Maybe I should read the terms of service I agreed to…
Anyway, please let me know if you have any trouble posting comments. Thanks.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “my forks go missing”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Comments
3 Responses to “Host Infection”
October 18th, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
I would never try to hack into your blog, and if I did, I would certainly do something more spectacular than inhibit people from posting comments! We’ll see if this works… I haven’t tried posting a comment for a few days, so I hadn’t noticed a problem.
October 20th, 2008 @ 7:50 am
Test
October 20th, 2008 @ 7:50 am
So far, so good.