Re: Wiki 2FA - Mailing list pgsql-www

From Alvaro Herrera
Subject Re: Wiki 2FA
Date
Msg-id 20160124152356.GA490942@alvherre.pgsql
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Wiki 2FA  (Stefan Kaltenbrunner <stefan@kaltenbrunner.cc>)
Responses Re: Wiki 2FA  (Greg Stark <stark@mit.edu>)
List pgsql-www
Stefan Kaltenbrunner wrote:
> On 01/24/2016 01:32 AM, Greg Sabino Mullane wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >> I dunno.  I was astonished that they came back a second time after we'd
> >> once thrown them off and cleaned up the mess; you'd think they'd realize
> >> that that would just happen again.  I think it may have been an
> >> intentional attack on the PG project as such, not just drive-by spamming.
> >> (If so, and if the goal was to complicate our lives, they succeeded.)
> > 
> > I doubt PG was targeted: MediaWiki was. It's a popular and easy spam vector
> > these days, and reminds me of Windows in the old days: you can setup a
> > brand new wiki and be guaranteed a spammer before you even start advertising
> > your site. And once you are on a list, expect to never be able to fully open
> > your wiki again.
> 
> yeah :(

Keep in mind that our own MediaWiki installation has a custom auth
system, using our community auth system.  Which means that this wasn't a
simple attack script for generic Mediawiki installations; if it was a
script at all then it must have been tailored for our system somehow.
Maybe part of it is scripted and the auth part requires a human to
oversee.

Either way, I concur that it's pretty scary.

-- 
Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services



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