Has anyone here had their website hacked lately? I had a possible-client call me this morning telling me that they tried to visit my site to sign up for a workshop and found a horrificly frightening homepage and no way to get into the site. I have already taken it down and replaced my site, at least I hope so and was wondering if anyone else here was attacked. Can't understand why anyone would do something so venomous. I did nothing wrong. Another question: do hackers generally keep coming back to re-hack the same sites or can I expect this to be a one time thing? I contacted my website host and they said they want to move my site to a new server, but the new server is using the ASP 2.0 .NET framework and I will have to re-write a huge amount of code especially regarding path names. NOt looking forward to that. Any suggestions?
I haven't been hacked, nor know of any else being so. What OS is your current server running on? If I was afraid of being hacked, I wouldn't want my website to be running on Windows Server 2003 which I assume would be the one to run ASP. I'd feel safer on Apache under Unix or Linix.
I just looked at your site and I see you're already running on a Windows server. If you have to re-write your ASP code, how hard would it be to re-write it as JSP and get off the Windows server?
a friend wrote my website in ASP and managed it for e foe about two years then decided he wanted to go to medical school and left me in charge of it. I barely know how to code, and needed to get a 'SAMS Teach Yourself' book to learn ASP. What is JSP? Is that a Java code? I got word back from the tech guy at the webhost and said that they now only use ASP.NET 2.0 which is suposed to be tighter on security. He said the reason my site got hit was due to the FileObjectSystem being open and allows anyone to write in the directories. He says the FSO used in ASP is now disabled on thier servers under the ASP.NET system. I would have to change how I reference files by removing the '../' ni the paths and just use the direct path name and also need to change how I send email from my site from using CDONTS to CDOSYS method which I am clueless on. Man ignorance sucks! Though I might be abel to figure out how to iplement the CDOSYS in a few days, the re-write of the path names will take me probably a week to go through all the files I have on the site
On the one hand, the internet is terrific in that it lets us find great folks from pretty much around the world that we would never have a chance to find even a decade ago. OTOH, it gives perverts instant access to our kids and opens a direct line to a wide variety of scum bags and general psychopaths to our living room.
JSP is the Java equivelent to ASP. That's as much as I know. My only direct experience with dynamic HTML is with PERL which is a much older way of doing things. ASP looks pretty cool if it's secure.
Sorry to hear about your web-site getting hacked. However, I am a little surprised that the ISP (or web-site hosting service) rep is saying that your site got hacked because of how it was implemented. This looks more like a security issue with the ISP's system than your individual web-site per-se.
I don't think it is so much how it is written, but the file system used in the ASP paradigm. Suposedly it has an open file structure that does allow files to be written to my directories, but I am not entirely clear on that. In any case, they have upgraded to a more secure file system, which will unfortunately require me to re-write some of my code. But I am not sure how much yet. I am still waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully it will not be too much.
What still gets me is why my site? I never did anything to anyone on the internet that would warrant such a blantant and gross attack that really did look horrible and frightening, so different than the tone and image of the website that I have tried to build. Its reall got me out of sorts.
Sorry to hear you got hacked! It does feel like a bit of a personal invasion doesn't it! I used to own a small web design business a few years ago (before the world of FLASH took over) and at random, two of my clients had someone 'hack' their site by putting something nasty on their home page. Both times it had to do with server security & both times, it really had NOTHING to do with the client. It probably wasn't a personal attack on you, your business, or your work, but just that they were able to get to your site & put their nasty stuff there. Likely, you won't see it happen again to you but if it does, like Anil said, I would be more worried about my website host than the style of your own site.
On the other hand, this is the first time I have had a good look at your website due to this discussion!! You've got some beautiful work there!!!
ASP and .NET are pretty secure. Somehow the hacker got your ftp site address and was able to either obtain or crack your username and pass word in order to be able to see the file structure and uplosd the offending files. The other possible cause is a 'backdoor trojan' that got installed on the server.
Before rewriting a bunch of code, ask your web host about assigning a new ftp DNS, username and password, as well as run a thorough check of the server to see if a 'back door' was left open.
I am truly sorry that this happened to you and I hope you can get this resolved soon.
ASP is an acronym for Active Server Page and JSP is an acronym for Java Server Page. Basically, each of these technologies generate page content from files and code running on the server, whereas HTML is rendered by your browser.
ASP and JSP are most frequently used when content for the pages is stored in a database. A Windows server can utilize either ASP or JSP with a connection to a MS-SQL Server, MS Access databse or a MySQL datatbase. ASP will not run on an Unix server, so JSP and a MySQL databsae are used. Both ASP and JSP can (and do) use plain HTML for generating static content.
I agree with Preston about taking preventive measures (changing address, username and password). Most ISPs I know will reformat and rebuild a server that had been compromised since it's almost impossible to track down any "back doors" left behind by the hackers.
Either way - chances are the hacker got in due to lax security on the ISP's side. Unless they can point to specific code on your site that is poorly-written and prone to attacks, their request to rewrite the site is ludicruous in my opinion. It's more than likely their fault rather than yours.
Also - if you're using plain FTP and/or Telnet to access your server - stop now! Ask your ISP to install secure FTP and/or SSH to make sure your username and password are encrypted, otherwise it is very easy for anyone on your network to "sniff" them out and hack your site again.
They have pointed specifically what in the code needs to be re-written, its the paths to files in my directory structure. Appently in using ASP and having the parent path feature enabled along with using a FSO it makes the server vulnerable to hacking since nackers can work out the directory structure. So the rewrite will be to go through my code and remove all references to the ../ or ../../ or ../../../ and just use direct paths instead. I am not sure why having parent paths and FSO together makes a site vulnerable to attack by hackers, but in the ASP.NET system parent paths are disabled and it is supposed to be more secure. Since I do access a data base for dynamic pages on my site and to send email from registrations and purchases and to capture that information, I think I do need an FSO so it leaves me with two options, 1 stay where I am and risk being hacked again, or re-write the portions of code, which will end up being nearly some code in every file on my site and move my site to a more secure server using the ASP.NET system instead of regular ASP. A major drag.
Discussion
14 replies- Dan.
- Dan.
a friend wrote my website in ASP and managed it for e foe about two years then decided he wanted to go to medical school and left me in charge of it. I barely know how to code, and needed to get a 'SAMS Teach Yourself' book to learn ASP. What is JSP? Is that a Java code? I got word back from the tech guy at the webhost and said that they now only use ASP.NET 2.0 which is suposed to be tighter on security. He said the reason my site got hit was due to the FileObjectSystem being open and allows anyone to write in the directories. He says the FSO used in ASP is now disabled on thier servers under the ASP.NET system. I would have to change how I reference files by removing the '../' ni the paths and just use the direct path name and also need to change how I send email from my site from using CDONTS to CDOSYS method which I am clueless on. Man ignorance sucks! Though I might be abel to figure out how to iplement the CDOSYS in a few days, the re-write of the path names will take me probably a week to go through all the files I have on the site
Kent in SD
- Dan.
Sorry to hear about your web-site getting hacked. However, I am a little surprised that the ISP (or web-site hosting service) rep is saying that your site got hacked because of how it was implemented. This looks more like a security issue with the ISP's system than your individual web-site per-se.
I don't think it is so much how it is written, but the file system used in the ASP paradigm. Suposedly it has an open file structure that does allow files to be written to my directories, but I am not entirely clear on that. In any case, they have upgraded to a more secure file system, which will unfortunately require me to re-write some of my code. But I am not sure how much yet. I am still waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully it will not be too much.
What still gets me is why my site? I never did anything to anyone on the internet that would warrant such a blantant and gross attack that really did look horrible and frightening, so different than the tone and image of the website that I have tried to build. Its reall got me out of sorts.
Sorry to hear you got hacked! It does feel like a bit of a personal invasion doesn't it! I used to own a small web design business a few years ago (before the world of FLASH took over) and at random, two of my clients had someone 'hack' their site by putting something nasty on their home page. Both times it had to do with server security & both times, it really had NOTHING to do with the client. It probably wasn't a personal attack on you, your business, or your work, but just that they were able to get to your site & put their nasty stuff there. Likely, you won't see it happen again to you but if it does, like Anil said, I would be more worried about my website host than the style of your own site.
On the other hand, this is the first time I have had a good look at your website due to this discussion!!
ASP and .NET are pretty secure. Somehow the hacker got your ftp site address and was able to either obtain or crack your username and pass word in order to be able to see the file structure and uplosd the offending files. The other possible cause is a 'backdoor trojan' that got installed on the server.
Before rewriting a bunch of code, ask your web host about assigning a new ftp DNS, username and password, as well as run a thorough check of the server to see if a 'back door' was left open.
I am truly sorry that this happened to you and I hope you can get this resolved soon.
-PB
I do all my pages using html, stoneage tech I guess. What advantages does asp/jsp offer over plain html?
ASP is an acronym for Active Server Page and JSP is an acronym for Java Server Page. Basically, each of these technologies generate page content from files and code running on the server, whereas HTML is rendered by your browser.
ASP and JSP are most frequently used when content for the pages is stored in a database. A Windows server can utilize either ASP or JSP with a connection to a MS-SQL Server, MS Access databse or a MySQL datatbase. ASP will not run on an Unix server, so JSP and a MySQL databsae are used. Both ASP and JSP can (and do) use plain HTML for generating static content.
-PB
Either way - chances are the hacker got in due to lax security on the ISP's side. Unless they can point to specific code on your site that is poorly-written and prone to attacks, their request to rewrite the site is ludicruous in my opinion. It's more than likely their fault rather than yours.
Also - if you're using plain FTP and/or Telnet to access your server - stop now! Ask your ISP to install secure FTP and/or SSH to make sure your username and password are encrypted, otherwise it is very easy for anyone on your network to "sniff" them out and hack your site again.
Guy
They have pointed specifically what in the code needs to be re-written, its the paths to files in my directory structure. Appently in using ASP and having the parent path feature enabled along with using a FSO it makes the server vulnerable to hacking since nackers can work out the directory structure. So the rewrite will be to go through my code and remove all references to the ../ or ../../ or ../../../ and just use direct paths instead. I am not sure why having parent paths and FSO together makes a site vulnerable to attack by hackers, but in the ASP.NET system parent paths are disabled and it is supposed to be more secure. Since I do access a data base for dynamic pages on my site and to send email from registrations and purchases and to capture that information, I think I do need an FSO so it leaves me with two options, 1 stay where I am and risk being hacked again, or re-write the portions of code, which will end up being nearly some code in every file on my site and move my site to a more secure server using the ASP.NET system instead of regular ASP. A major drag.
The dreaded hacker!
My host is using ASP.NET. All I know is what lots of folks tell me that this is the way to go.
Lets hope this is the last time. It's like having your home robbed!
JG