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Users sporadically logged in as other users

Started by Kambei_Shimada, April 28, 2017, 09:39:34 PM

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Kambei_Shimada

Hi, so I've recently experienced a troubling problem with my SMF 2.0.13, and I was hoping one of you guys might have a clue as what it could be. I'm unable to link to the forum right now, because I took it down for maintenance, but I can explain what happened:

The forum is on a shared server. It could be unrelated, but for two days, the site had some performance problems (loading times of up to 10 seconds per page), and then suddenly users began reporting they were seeing pages meant for others, as in USER A is clicking on a thread and it loads the page as USER B. That went so far as to have USER A, now seeing himself as USER B, able to briefly check USER B's personal messages (have screenshots of this, private message subject headings and all). This was also the case for guests, or anyone logged out completely. I could refresh a page and see myself logged out, but refresh again and be logged back in (often as a different user). Also of note is the time seemed to be off on the pages were it happened (displaying a 10-15 min delay).

This issue popped up completely out of the blue. I had made no recent changes to my SMF settings, and after troubleshooting with my host, learned that they had made no updates or changes either to the server's database, PHP or MySQL versions.

Any clues as to what could be the cause of this bizarre, scary behavior? I'd appreciate any help you can give. It would really set my mind at ease...

Sir Osis of Liver

Don't know if this will help, but give it a try.

Admin -> Server Settings -> Cookies and Sessions

- Change cookie name.
- Check Enable local storage of cookies

Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

Arantor

Ask your host if they're using Varnish or similar and if they are to please turn it off.

Kambei_Shimada

Thanks so much Arantor. Spoke with host again and indeed they had enabled Varnish. Unsure, frustrated why they didn't acknowledge that earlier as a possibility. Will still take a few hours to ensure that it's been resolved.

Hoping to change hosts soon, as Bluehost has been nothing but trouble when tech support issues come up. Any suggestions? My site lives and dies by it's forum, which is sizable. 700mb database.

Illori

check our paid hosting board for a few suggestions.

Arantor

Honestly not sure who I'd recommend, I haven't had to go host shopping in a while.

Bob Perry of Web Presence Consulting

One of my clients pointed this issue out to me yesterday, thought it was a minor issue only related to his site... wrong answer... been fighting with this on my own site too and ready to throw the computer through the window... this is the craziest situation I've run into in a long time... one menu option shows me logged in, another shows me logged out, nothing makes sense...

I had previously installed a pear cache at the host, so after reading this I uninstalled that, no change... tried renaming cookies and enabling local cookie storage, nada... I hate hostgator support cause they want to try and force me to upgrade to dedicated server which I can't afford and also because you can't talk to them on the phone, they pretty much twist your arm to use live chat... situation definitely sucks but now its a vendetta... I WILL figure this out...
Best Regards,
Bob Perry



"The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it." Elbert Hubbard

HDB

Would it help if you were to go into the SMF Admin CP and in Server Settings select Caching Level to "No caching"? Would that stop the unwanted behavior on SMF?

Arantor

Nothing to do with SMF's caching, this is implemented lower down the food chain.

HDB

Thanks Arantor. I see that Varnish is rooted on the server but I was wondering if somehow SMF could be set to ignore it.

Arantor

Nope, because it happens before it gets to SMF.

utgf

I have the exact same issue...........and it's driving me crazy....I'm on the phone with their support now

utgf

Well, I just got off a two separate 1 hour phone calls with Bluehost.

They told me that they've seen a flurry of issues with forum websites because of Varnish.  They ended up flushing the Varnish cache and said that that should fix the issue.  They told me to give it some time but that I should start to see the forum act normally.

Kindred

Flushing the cache will just reset the problem to restart when the cache gets refilled.

They should just turn off/remove varnish
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Arantor

The reason they have a flurry of issues is because they clearly haven't configured it correctly to understand when content should be cached and when it shouldn't.

Kirsten07734

I'm having the same problem.  First they state that it can't be Varnish causing the problem.  Then they state the only way to fix it is for me to buy a more expensive premium hosting package so I can turn off Varnish.  And finally they say the problem is with the Simple Machines software.

What I want to know is:  if they put Varnish on my account a year ago to punish me for having a large site, why did it wait until yesterday to start exposing my member's private messages to the world?  I changed nothing.  It cannot be SMF because I updated nothing on the SMF software yesterday.  It has to be something they did at BlueHost.  But because they refuse to put some effort into fixing it when it's an easy way to force a sale of a more expensive product, I'm stuck.

I need a new hosting service, not one that forces me to shut down my site to protect my members while they hold it for ransom.  I can't even run it in maintenance mode without exposing their private messages.

Arantor

Because they've turned up/changed the Varnish configuration to be more aggressive.

Steve

DO NOT pm me for support!

lurkalot

Quote from: Arantor on April 29, 2017, 03:22:51 AM
Ask your host if they're using Varnish or similar and if they are to please turn it off.

Pete, seen you mention this a few times lately.  I've seen a XenForo forum suffering this same problem over the last few weeks as well.  I checked and see that their host is also running Varnish.  All a bit worrying if you ask me.

Relentless_Fatigue

Quote from: lurkalot on May 01, 2017, 08:43:42 AMPete, seen you mention this a few times lately.  I've seen a XenForo forum suffering this same problem over the last few weeks as well.  I checked and see that their host is also running Varnish.  All a bit worrying if you ask me.

Seems to be a common thread for all the cheap hosts of the early to mid-2000s, like bluehost and hostgator. Those guys had great bang for your buck at the time, so they reeled in a lot of customers, and then the service slowly went to hell as they proceeded to maximize profits. I bet they're all just a shell of what they were now and are manned by folks who can properly set up a cache server. Wouldn't even be surprised if they were bought out by the same company.

Only solution seems to be to move on to "cloud hosting", where you have control over these things, or to migrate to a more established, more reliable company.

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