Announcement

**TheCotMan** · February 21, 2012, 10:34

Re: Bug Report: RSS Broken

Originally posted by bluknight View Post

Every RSS link I seem to hit returns with an empty RSS file, and a link to the top level of the forums. Haven't done exhaustive testing, but the following two URLS return that:

https://forum.defcon.org/external.ph...S2&forumids=91 (General Announcements)
https://forum.defcon.org/external.ph...2&forumids=615 (Defcon 20 Planning)

That is a puzzler. It also looks like a bug in forum software. Consider changing the type from RSS2& to RSS2& and see how suddenly, it appears to work, for any of these:

https://forum.defcon.org/external.ph...mp;forumids=91 (General Announcements)
https://forum.defcon.org/external.ph...p;forumids=615 (Defcon 20 Planning)

I've tried from the local machine, bypassing the firewall and filters in-place, and the problem follows the external results for each submission.

This will take a little time to diagnose. First thought is the functions in PHP used by the forum software are not parsing variables passed with GET requests in HTTP.

if you have your own links from other sources, you can try changing the URL as suggested above until the cause of this is found and fixed.

**bluknight** · February 21, 2012, 10:42

Re: Bug Report: RSS Broken

Originally posted by TheCotMan View Post

That is a puzzler. It also looks like a buh in forum software. Consider changing the type from RSS2& to RSS2& and see how suddenly, it appears to work, for any of these:

Workaround verified in Firefox, Chromium, and using wget from my workstation. I'd agree, it sounds like something in the URL parser. Maybe a bug in the upstream code, or is the RSS something that's custom-written for us?

**TheCotMan** · February 21, 2012, 11:10

Re: Bug Report: RSS Broken

Originally posted by bluknight View Post

Workaround verified in Firefox, Chromium, and using wget from my workstation. I'd agree, it sounds like something in the URL parser. Maybe a bug in the upstream code, or is the RSS something that's custom-written for us?

Those functions are not customized for us, so it could be some other config we have or an issue with the forum software itself. This upgrade, I did completely clear out all old code to complete a clean install of just the new code, but the DB has mostly survived 10+ years of upgrades to the software. It is possible an old setting's default was one default before and is a new default now, and the new default setting does not cause problems. Will need to investigate more, so added to the list of bugs to fix.

**TheCotMan** · April 3, 2012, 10:31

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

All "Fourm Leader/Organizers" from last year forums have been copied forward with the forum controls in their respective forums, to permit them to organize their content and promote their contest, event or social gathering.

New Additions this year:
* DaKahuna: Wireless Village
* A: Hardware hacking Village
* EvilMoFo: Hackbus
* Abstract: Schemaverse

All the rest were copied forward from previous years.

If you were a "forum leader/organizer" for a contest/event/social-gathering in the past, and are running this again this year, and are not listed in the associated forum, please let me know. (I make mistakes, and your feedback provides opportunity to fix what is overlooked.)

Thanks!
-Cot

**TheCotMan** · April 9, 2012, 19:15

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Long-standing issue is "classic" and "High-Contrast Dark" styles having the search icon "magniftying glass" wayyyyyy off to the right, after a lot of scrolling seems to be fixed. Most of the CSS is computed, and if the value used for cells are too small, wraparound-magic (underflow/overflow) can make things very large.

Anyway, the wide scrolling in the "X" axis seems to be fixed.

[One advantage to things being slow is work can be spent elsewhere.]

**TheCotMan** · April 13, 2012, 13:56

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Expect maintenance some time this evening or weekend which will bring down forums, test forums, and pics. Later, it will also bring down tamperevidentwiki.

When I know more, I'll pass it on.

**TheCotMan** · April 25, 2012, 22:46

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Ripshy says the Defcon Summit EFF Fundraiser is to return to Defcon 20...
New forum created for The Summit EFF Fundraiser
[forum=616]The Summit EFF Fundraiser[/forum]

Originally posted by description

Summary: theSummit is a Fund Raiser for the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Thursday Night between Black Hat and DEF CON events.(twitter), (site)

New forum created for Social Engineering CTF 3 (SE CTF 3):
[forum=663]Forum: The Schmooze Strikes Back - SECTF 3 (Social Engineering Capture the Flag 3)[/forum]

Originally posted by Description

Returning to Defcon 20, the Crew at Social-Engineer.org is challenging you. We are inviting those of you who think you can use ethical social engineering skills to stretch your limits as a social engineer. A unique blend of information gathering, planning and attack vector execution will challenge the very core of every participant. This will be a different SE challenge as our focus is not on who can “get” the target the worst, but a true display of SE talents. (site)

**TheCotMan** · April 30, 2012, 13:08

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

This morning, one person reported an error of invalid, "security token," when accessing the forums, and another claimed another error when trying to update their profile.

If you are experiencing these problems, check to see if you have cookies disabled in your browser -- the forum software needs cookies to work as expected. Many things will work without cookies, but then your browsing URL includes a plain-text session key. The risk of theft of information in your URL is smaller with https, but do you really want a referring URL to another site to leak information about your session here when you click on a link here, which takes you to another site?

If you have cookies enabled, but are seeing a new error like these, then it is possible that your cookies for the forums have become corrupt. Easiest way to fix this is logout from the forums, visit the cookies section of your browser, look for all defcon.org cookies and delete them. Next visit the forums again and login.

If after doing both, you still see these session problems, please let us know here, in this thread.

**TheCotMan** · June 26, 2012, 14:26

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

This afternoon, HighWiz reported a complaint about forums and a DB issue/error, so I took the forums, pics, test forums down to investigate.

(Thanks HighWiz!)

Though one cause of this problem has been addressed, another has not and is still under investigation.

Service restored.

Enjoy!
-Cot

**TheCotMan** · July 5, 2012, 19:25

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

With tethering using smartphones being so common now, I've unstuck Networking your Caravan. Wifi networking a caravan is still a bad idea.

**TheCotMan** · July 10, 2012, 20:39

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Defcon forums, Test Forums, and TamperEvidentWiki are scheduled for maintenance tonight, each will be down for about 1 hour, one at a time from 9:00pm until just before midnight pacific time, today.

**TheCotMan** · July 11, 2012, 22:15

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Originally posted by TheCotMan View Post

Defcon forums, Test Forums, and TamperEvidentWiki are scheduled for maintenance tonight, each will be down for about 1 hour, one at a time from 9:00pm until just before midnight pacific time, today.

Had to postpone this from yesterday because I angered the firewall last night. This will start at 10:30pm tonight for these forums.

**TheCotMan** · July 12, 2012, 00:05

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Originally posted by TheCotMan View Post

Had to postpone this from yesterday because I angered the firewall last night. This will start at 10:30pm tonight for these forums.

Maintenance cycle completed at 11:30pm pacific time for these forums and around 11:58 on the tamper evident wiki. Please let us know if you see problems or strangeness.

Thanks!
-Cot

**TheCotMan** · July 13, 2012, 07:28

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Sorry about the delay, I've been busy with upgrades and work, and disagreements with the firewall. :-P (thanks for fixing that Jeff.)

Several new contest/event forums will be going up tonight to match the list that Pyr0 sent me. I'll announce them like this others when they are up.

**TheCotMan** · July 14, 2012, 00:55

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Originally posted by TheCotMan View Post

Sorry about the delay, I've been busy with upgrades and work, and disagreements with the firewall. :-P (thanks for fixing that Jeff.)

Several new contest/event forums will be going up tonight to match the list that Pyr0 sent me. I'll announce them like this others when they are up.

I ran out of time last night to get these forums up. I'll circle back to work on them when i wake up.

Sorry, I've been busy at my "real life" job.

Announcement

PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

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