Unregistered Guest trying to login.

[wohoo]

Hey guys,

for the last few weeks I've been getting a visitor who has tried to login but has yet to register an account. I suspect he's trying to get access as an admin.

I want to know what usernames he's trying to login with. How could I learn that ? Anything like 'failed login attempts' out there ?

Thanks so much.

[Grudge]

Failed login attempts are in all the error log:
Admin -> Maintenance -> Error Log

[wohoo]

Woah, thanks so much.

I now have what might be a problem. There are 6313 pages of errors. And another error seems to come after each click.

This is what seems to be causing all those pages (the most occuring error):

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8: Undefined variable: context
/home/wohoo/public_html/forums/Sources/Load.php
211

How would I get rid of/fix  that ?

[Grudge]

I assume you have a mod installed? Easiest way to *stop* the error is open Load.php in an editor, go to line 211, and find the top of the function it lives in. Then add $context to the global list.

To clear your error log out, so those particular errors go away, try something like:

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DELETE FROM smf_log_errors WHERE message LIKE "%Undefined variable: context%"

Run that in phpMyAdmin.

Cheers,
Grudge

[wohoo]

Thanks for the help but I don't I'm still a beginner at all this.
So bare with me please

This is what I have on line 211:

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if (!$context['user']['is_guest'] && (!empty($modSettings['show_bookmark'])))

What now ?

[wohoo]

The forum error log doesn't show what username he tried to login with. Where can I see that ?

I'd like to know if he wants to gain access to the admin account or is he's just having problems logging in.

Thanks!

[Amacythe]

The easiest way for you to see what you're looking for in your error log is to log out then when you try to log back in, enter a wrong password.  Log in and go look at the error log.  It sounds to me like a bot.

[wohoo]

Ok, I see now. Thanks a lot.

But do bots print pages ? Cause that's what he does a few times a day.

[Amacythe]

'Who's Online' shows you what they are TRYING to do, not what is actually being done.

A bot will attempt to click each and every link it finds and that is what will be displayed. 

Next time you see a guest on the board doing something you think is odd, try checking the IP address.

[wohoo]

Yeah, I've been doing that. It comes up as WASHINGTON, REDMOND, MICROSOFT CORP
I banned him by ip, came back a day later as 207.46.98.126 instead of 207.46.98.127
So it's most likely a bot ?

And thanks for the explanation. I was getting paranoid over here (my first community)

[Amacythe]

yep... a bot

I wouldn't ban it if you want the added traffic it may bring.

[wohoo]

It adds me to searh engines and such ?

[Miraenda]

Yeah, because 207.46.98.126 and 207.46.98.127 when traced belong to msn's bot (msnbot.msn.com).  You blocked MSN from spidering your site for their search engine basically...

[Grudge]

Thanks for the help but I don't I'm still a beginner at all this.
So bare with me please

This is what I have on line 211:

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if (!$context['user']['is_guest'] && (!empty($modSettings['show_bookmark'])))

What now ?

Going back to this problem. Replace that line with:

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if (!$GLOBALS['context']['user']['is_guest'] && (!empty($modSettings['show_bookmark'])))

To make all those error messages go away - it's the bookmark mod which is causing those errors.

[wohoo]

Thanks for the help. I did what you said but now another error comes up:

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8: Undefined index: user
/home/wohoo/public_html/forums/Sources/Load.php
211

On a side note, I uninstalled the bookmark mod a while ago.

[wohoo]

Any help ?

[[Unknown]]

What are lines 205 to 216 of Load.php?

How do I modify files?

-[Unknown]

[wohoo]

My apologies for the late response.
I used Dreamweaver to show the line numbers and lines 205 to 216 of Load.php are:
   

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elseif ($user_info['is_admin'])
$user_info['query_see_board'] = '1';
// Registered user.... just the groups in $user_info['groups'].
else
$user_info['query_see_board'] = '(FIND_IN_SET(' . implode(', b.memberGroups) OR FIND_IN_SET(', $user_info['groups']) . ', b.memberGroups))';
// Thread Bookmarks
if (!$GLOBALS['context']['user']['is_guest'] && (!empty($modSettings['show_bookmark'])))
{
if (!empty($user_info['n_bookmarks']))
{

$t_book = array();

[[Unknown]]

Replace !$GLOBALS['context']['user']['is_guest'] with !$user_info['is_guest'].

-[Unknown]

[wohoo]

Yes, that does it. Thank you!