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IRIS

Instructional & Research Information Systems

phpMyAdmin vulnerabilities and scanning

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John Ives from the campus SNS (System & Network Security) wrote:

“Everyone,

As many of you may be aware, web based management tools, whether they are used to manage database backends, web content or anything else, are frequently the targets of attacks by would be hackers. In both March an April, phpMyAdmin, a tool for managing MySQL servers via the web, released patches for issues that would allow users to execute arbitrary php code on the server. In the last couple of days, System and Network
Security has seen a marked increase in the number of attackers who have been scanning for these vulnerabilities across campus. This increase also coincides with an increase in phpMyAdmin scanning that has been reported from other sources, like the Internet Storm Center.

If your system runs phpMyAdmin and you have not already applied the March and April patches (see the reference section below), I would urge you to do so, as soon as possible.

Yours,

John Ives

References:

phpMyAdmin Homepage:

April Patch:

March Patch:

Exchange email delivery issue

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As announced previously to EECS/BWRC Exchange users, the BWRC IronPort anti-spam appliance was scheduled to be moved to the campus datacenter this morning, with downtime expected between 6 am and 7 am.

Kevin Zimmerman has run into some problems getting the IronPort properly installed in the new location, and is working with the vendor to seek immediate resolution. Failing a quick fix, the IronPort appliance will be returned to its previous location, to restore Exchange email delivery service.

The BWRC IronPort generally handles all incoming EECS Exchange email, filtering out lots of spam. For the interim, I have updated forwarding for FONTUS Exchange users, so that new email as of 8:16 should go directly to FONTUS. This will allow normal mail delivery for FONTUS users, but will likely result in a temporary increase in received spam.

No mail will be lost. Email sent during the downtime will be delayed. BWRC Exchange users will continue to have mail delayed until the IronPort is back in service.

Thank you for your patience.
[Read more…] about Exchange email delivery issue

IMAP Service Online

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The IMAP Server experienced an unplanned outage while switching from the old LDAP servers to the new LDAP servers.

This was supposed to be a transparent switchover, but we ran into some unforeseen problems that caused the IMAP server to defer mail delivery.

While trouble shooting and fixing that problem users were not able to read mail.

This problem has been resolved.

IDSG regrets any inconvenience this has caused.

Resolved as of 2009-06-17 23:30:00

Webmail Service Restored

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The WebmailServer experienced an unplanned outage while switching from the old LDAP servers to the new LDAP servers.

This was supposed to be a transparent switchover, but we ran into some unforeseen problems that caused the Webmail server to not accept logins.

This problem has been resolved.

IDSG regrets any inconvenience this has caused

Resolved as of 2009-06-18 01:15:00

AirBears Disruption

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The AirBears access manager serving Soda/Cory/BWRC/HMMB/Sibley malfunctioned; wireless clients were unable to get DHCP leases. The campus Wireless Network Engineer rebooted the controller at 10:40 and the service appears to be operating normally.

Resolved as of 2009-06-11 10:45:00

June 2009 Server Patching

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Microsoft will release their patches for the month on Tuesday, Tuesday, June 9th, 2009.

PRINT, RIS, WINTERM and WINSWW will automatically patch and reboot Wednesday, June 10th, at 3:00 am.

macserver.eecs will be down for patching and maintenance Wednesday, June 10th, from 6:00 a.m. – 7:00 a.m.
[Read more…] about June 2009 Server Patching

Network Services Outage

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We will be doing a code upgrade and some brief tests on the switch that hosts most EECS servers and services on Tuesday, June 9th. We have scheduled a downtime from 06:00-07:30 but we are hoping to keep outages to much less than that. The new code is supposed to correct the software malfunction that caused some recent unscheduled outages to our servers. While the service affected says “wired networking”, all services are likely to be affected.

All work was completed successfully.

Resolved as of 2009-06-09 07:32:00