Forum Maintenance Announcements

[number6]

Work was done to clean up issues related to improved security preventing new avatar and new attachments from being made available to browsers.
Please let us know if either of these re-surface or if the applied fixes break other things which were working.
Thanks!

[number6]

Minor update to software forms uses. I don't anticipate any problems. No new features. Please let us know if you see problems by replying here or sending us an email with the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page.

[Dark Tangent]

Looks like it caused a problem with picture uploads. It's been fixed and the hunt continues by number6 to find other issues.

[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