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Access Romance and Cuppacafe hacked

by Walt

Two websites under my control got hacked this past week. We're tracking down the issue, but it looks to be a security issue with a script running on the server.

As a result, unpatched Windows machines were exposed to a javascript link that could have put something on their machines.

Please, keep your Windows machines patched by visiting Windows Update. This is especially important if you're AOL'ers that think that AOL has your protection at heart, because they don't.

Also, do yourself a favor, and go to this website:

http://www.java.com and install their free java software with the "Download Now" link that should give you options to download and install the proper version of Java.

Many exploits during the last year had to do with exploiting Microsoft's version of Java which often does function but hasn't been kept secure.

If anyone visiting this site has the version of Java from Sun's Java.com site, the exploit would not have worked.

Please go and install Java now. If you think you have an old version of Sun's Java on your machine, the page has an additional link to verify your installation. I think there's also some cheesy games on that page you can also download, but I make no claims about those -- it's just the Java software that we're talking about.

Java is used for things like live updates, such as stock ticker information and even live baseball game info.

We've had one report of possible infection, and of course, the potential of harm to the server scares the crap out of me.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 8th, 2006 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Access Romance and Cuppacafe hacked”

  1. Pat Says:
    September 9th, 2006 at 5:51 pm

    Is that why I keep having a problem when I go into Access Romance? It tells me my computer has to automatically shutdown due to some error or something.

  2. walt Says:
    September 9th, 2006 at 6:18 pm

    I've run a check every several hours and closed the hole the nasty guys came through, and the same thing happened at Cuppacafe, so, I'm quite sure we're clean. I'm on Alison's new laptop so I can't recheck the server again quite yet, but here's what I think:

    If you (or anyone else) is having this problem, empty your browser cache. If you don't know how, it's high time you learned. (Browser cache = Temporary Internet Files)

    Also, that Java.com thing. I'm going through the "new computer" checklist and I went java.com. And THEN I went to Mozilla.com and installed Firefox.

    If you're using the AOL browser or IE, please at least install and try out Firefox.

    By trying a different browser than the one you are having problems with, you're guaranteed not to accidentally pull up a "cached" version.

    The problem script on there is something that ends with a ".js", which is FINE for many things, such as the one from Google.com we use as an independant statistics puller. ANY other files on the front page of Access Romance or Cuppacafe.com that has a ".js" might be suspect. You can see this by looking at the source for the page, and searching for the text ".js" without the quotes.

    So, the short answer is, please try another browser, and then get back with me.