Forum Maintenance Announcements

[Dark Tangent]

So far so good, so we will move on to the next set of security enhancements.

[Dark Tangent]

Victory!

As part of the ongoing system maintenance and security improvements I've been using the "least privileged" model, and just now I've managed to get every process needed to run the forums executing as a non-privileged user. Woo! That was necessary because it is the foundation to the next series of security improvements.

For now I'll let things run this way and keep an eye on logs. As usual if you see or notice anything good or bad please let us know to investigate.

[number6]

An upgrade to software used by the forums has just been completed.
Down-time was around 10 seconds.
This upgrade should not impact service.
Please let us know if you see problems or issues.
If you can't reply, you can email us at defconforums@gmail.com

[number6]

Forum were down from around 6am until around 9:45am this morning. Sorry about the down time. Issue found and resolved. DB has been repaired. Please let us know if you see strangeness on the forums.

[Dark Tangent]

We have updated the web server and optimized the configurations as well as updated OpenSSL and the base OS.

Please let us know if you see any strangeness!

[number6]

OS upgrade to forum server completed. Rebuild of web server and php to use new libs has been completed. Please report any new problems you encounter.
Thanks!

[Dark Tangent]

This latest update should fix a bunch of photo album display quirks and make them much more usable.

Because of this I'll start to add pictures from Safe Mode and want to encourage people to upload more pictures in albums to help test. Thanks!

[number6]

Forum software upgrade has been completed.

Forums are open for service. Please let us know if you find new issues.
Edit: changes:
* Posting: attachment system now uses new lib for all image content uploaded to the server allowing for easier, more understandable content appearing as you type and edit it
* Topic display includes "photos tab" to see media in a topic
* Media albums in user profiles should work and look better
* Assuming their change works, JavaScript is required for the login to work

[number6]

Minor update completed to software forums uses. Basic tests have not indicated anything is broken. Please let me know if you see otherwise. You can reply here, or send me a "DM" or email defconforums@gmail.com or forum@defcon.org with new problems you have found since this upgrade.

Thanks!

[number6]

Major OS upgrade completed: Aug 27 from 2:30pm until 5pm: core OS, kernel, binaries and and libs upgraded.
Web server service upgraded.
PHP rebuilt.
Forum Software upgrade completed: Aug 27 from 6:00pm until 6:30pm, then work to test and validate up until 7:00pm
Forums open for service at 6:30pm

Please let us know if you see something is broken. If you are unable to post a reply or send a DM, you can contact us at defconforums@gmail.com or forum@defcon.org and let us know.

[number6]

Forum maintenance completed. Please let us know if you see something is broken. If you are unable to post a reply or send a DM, you can contact us at defconforums@gmail.com or forum@defcon.org and let us know.

[number6]

Forum maintenance completed between 6:12am Pacific time and 6:30am Pacific Time. Estimated down-time was around 5 minutes.
Please report problems you see with forums.

One known issue, for which there is progress:
When you try a password reset ( https://forum.defcon.org/lostpw ) , and you complete the Captcha, you see an error like:

Invalid server response.

Please try again.

Before today, there were reports no email was sent. Now, email messages are sent when that error appears, but the error still appears.
I'm still working on that issue.
Please report any other problems you see with the forums. If you are unable to post your issues here, feel free to email us: forum@defcon.org

[Dark Tangent]

The big pre-con network updates are mostly all complete, This means we should be in our almost-final state leading up to Safe Mode!

If you notice any strange network timeouts or issues please let us know. We updated switches, the firewall, the server, and even some network cables. Everything *looks* ok but you know how the network bugs 🐛🐞 are.

Next up is an update to the iOS and Android mobile applications next week.

[number6]

DT made some changes for the new network and as of "now" mail from forums is working.
Also, the weird delay when posting replies, and no page reload to show success, and a sometimes "504 error" with strange CSS overlay issues, but if you manually force-reload the page, the post is there? That problem appears to be gone too.
Please report problems you have with the forums.
If you can't post here, you can email us at forum at defcon dot org.

[Dark Tangent]

We are in the middle of moving the server from one network to another, and while we work on everything one system at a time the forums will be without email for a few days.

This means new user signups will be broken until email is working again! Sorry for the inconvenience!