Oh dear., or: a wikipedian's worse dream come true? Options

[CrazyGameOfPoker]

It seems like either some admins have gone rouge rogue, or even worse someone's cracking into their accounts.

First it was AndyZ who made a very "special" deletions, and another special block before finally being caught and desysopped.

As people were trying to figure out what exactly happened (Dmdevit apparently posted AndyZ's IP address as part of checkuser on AN/I, but I can't find the diff), a more sinister plot was brewing...

Apparently the devious cracker (or perhaps a copycat), found another account to get into. Apparently he decided to one up the main page image vandal, by replacing those lovely sitenotices that are on every page with Goatse. (Well he also blocked Jimbo and deleted the Main Page again, but that's small fish)

In order to calm the populace, it seems that Brion's going to run a cracker in order to find admins with weak passwords.

Meanwhile one has to wonder if this particular reign of terror is going to continue. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/ph34r.gif)

[Somey]

And as usual, Cyde isn't very forgiving.

Why should we trust you to be an admin again? Your failure to take adequate security measures already got us a Tubgirl on the top of every page on Wikipedia. I and many others no longer trust you to have access to the bit anyway.

Well, I'd just like to say that I myself trust Jiang implicitly, and not only with the bit, but also the halter, the stirrups, and possibly even the lead rope.

I heard a rumor that his password was actually "jiang"...

[taiwopanfob]

If it is possible to run a client-side password cracker against Wikipedia without an alarm going off somewhere, then there are problems than can not be fixed by simply changing passwords. More than likely someone is just trying a quick sweep with a very small number of highly likely passwords, and has scored a number of hits. Wasn't everyone poo-pooing this a while back re: dormant admin accounts?

[gomi]

Here's what I don't understand: the password cracker could do much more damage if he/she compromised the account, changed the password, changed the email address, and then did nothing, or even better, acted normally, banning a few vandals here and there, voting in an AFD or RFA or whatever. There would be nothing (or at least very little) the compromised admin could do to re-take the account. Sigh.

[Somey]

Now that this has happened, somebody could also study an inactive admin's contribs for a while, then e-mail a bunch of active admins saying that he'd used a weak password and that the real admin is an impostor. Then there'd always be this vague suspicion following the real admin around like a cloud... They could ALL be impostors...!

I'll bet a good 25 percent of the admins probably use the term "lovecabal" for a password. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

[Uly]

That assumes the cracker was out to cause damage.

History seems to have shown that security exploiters are more interested in highly visible pranks than in stealthy damage.

[Rootology]

Got another pwned admin account:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...Conscious&page=

This is just absurd and silly now.

[Somey]

What was he doing, just blocking people at random? I mean, if the guy can program a bot to guess passwords, can't he program one to block all the other admins in under 60 seconds, so they don't have time to react? Or something?

C'mon, whoever you are! Can't you just save one account to do something really useful with, like start a huge wheel war with JoshuaZ, or maybe just mass-revert everything Jayjg and SlimVirgin have done since, well, Day One?

Not that he's likely to be reading this... (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/sad.gif)

Come to think of it, this is starting to reach media-attention proportions, isn't it?

[Rootology]

Come to think of it, this is starting to reach media-attention proportions, isn't it?

Not until he/she/it does something more than just troll Wikipedia, probably, unless it continues going on for a decent amount of time. It's all back alley Wikipedia stuff that will get cornholed once the WP:ANI archives cycle. If only it could get out to the blogosphere...

[CrazyGameOfPoker]

Actually Somey, admins are able to use block/protect/delete when they're still blocked, so it wouldn't have an effect if he blocked all the administrators.

Certainly would be hilarious.

[The Joy]

Come to think of it, this is starting to reach media-attention proportions, isn't it?

If the hacker gets into the more prominent accounts, like JoshuaZ, Danny, or Jimbo, then it will most definitely get that way.

[Somey]

Actually Somey, admins are able to use block/protect/delete when they're still blocked, so it wouldn't have an effect if he blocked all the administrators.

Dang, they think of everything, don't they? (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/mad.gif)

I've got to get that MediaWiki test-bed installation done ASAP, so that I'll write about these things without sounding like a numbskull.

[Rootology]

ANOTHER one got haxxed.

[Unrepentant Vandal]

Well chaps, I must admit that when this story broke I was very amused, and quickly got someone even less gainfully employed than myself to write a program to test these things. I can now report that the ten most inactive admins (from the list of wikipedian admins) do not have any of the 760 most commonly used passwords which I found on the net somewhere. None of them had any of these passwords, unfortunately.

If the person *is* reading this, please change the password of any remaining compromised accounts to aardvark, it would make these searches a lot quicker.

Note that there is nothing that Wikipedia can do about this, in the long term, without substantial redesign. They can brute force the current admins and enforce password change. It would be almost impossible to do this for all current users. An intelligent cracker will be looking for future admins to try. Even if number of logins is restricted, just try 5 logins for each user. Restrict it by IP and distributed computing is your friend. Remember to monitor new users, and keep a database of those whose passwords you obtain for future use, etc etc.

I'm not sure whether I should post the program or not, but at the moment I'm leading towards no.

[The Joy]

Not Tony the Marine! This is madness! Absolute madness! What is this person's agenda? Is he a disgruntled former Wikipedian or something? Or some crazed prankster?

[Rootology]

Not Tony the Marine! This is madness! Absolute madness! What is this person's agenda? Is he a disgruntled former Wikipedian or something? Or some crazed prankster?

$10 says Cplot! Does anyone raise $15 for Willy?

[The Joy]

Is this related to the Robdurber admin going rogue? I think they proved that banned user Wonderfool was using that account.

How long will it take before the Community starts blaming one of us on WR for this fiasco?

Update: Tony the Marine's been unblocked and exonerated. He'll get his admin bit back soon. But who will fall next?

This post has been edited by The Joy:

[Unrepentant Vandal]

Not Tony the Marine! This is madness! Absolute madness! What is this person's agenda? Is he a disgruntled former Wikipedian or something? Or some crazed prankster?

$10 says Cplot! Does anyone raise $15 for Willy?

Methinks GNAA or something... Dictionary attack is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and it would appear that it takes about ten or fifteen minutes to write the software to do this.

[Somey]

What is this person's agenda?

My guess is he's upset about the supposedly "NPOV" coverage of Sony's PlayStation_3 sixth-generation videogame console.

One can hardly blame him...

Is he a disgruntled former Wikipedian or something? Or some crazed prankster?

Well, he's indef-blocked Jimbo twice now, so he at least knows that much about what's going on... In fact, this makes four times for ol' Jimbo. Pretty soon he's going to be branded a "recurring bannee."

This is the most fun we've had in months!

[Rootology]

From a Mediawiki technology standpoint, short of rushing new logon related code into production, there really isn't anything they can do at this point. They can't block all open proxies until they're used against WP. The bodies will keep falling until there are no more crap passwords for accounts. Given that this is now getting more attention, it's only a matter of time till "veteran" non-admin accounts are harvested for trolling and vandalism next. And I have to agree with Cyde on one point: you have a crap password, it's your own fault for anything bad happening. You might as well make your banking PIN number "1234".

[Somey]

...I have to agree with Cyde on one point: you have a crap password, it's your own fault for anything bad happening. You might as well make your banking PIN number "1234".

Uh-oh... I'd better change my banking PIN number!

Actually, wasn't that gag used in Spaceballs?

Roland: Five.
Dark Helmet: Five.
Colonel Sandurz: Five.
Dark Helmet: So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

Later...
President Skroob: [enters after the interrogation of King Roland] Well? Did it work? Where's the king?
Dark Helmet: It worked, sir. We have the combination.
President Skroob: Great. Now we can take every last breath of fresh air from planet Druidia. What's the combination?
Dark Helmet: 1 2 3 4 5.
President Skroob: 1 2 3 4 5? That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage! Prepare Spaceball 1 for immediate departure!
Dark Helmet: Yes, sir!
President Skroob: And change the combination on my luggage!

[Unrepentant Vandal]

From a Mediawiki technology standpoint, short of rushing new logon related code into production, there really isn't anything they can do at this point. They can't block all open proxies until they're used against WP. The bodies will keep falling until there are no more crap passwords for accounts. Given that this is now getting more attention, it's only a matter of time till "veteran" non-admin accounts are harvested for trolling and vandalism next. And I have to agree with Cyde on one point: you have a crap password, it's your own fault for anything bad happening. You might as well make your banking PIN number "1234".

If they have any sense they will suspend logins until the problem is fixed.

[The Joy]

Dark Helmet: "The password's '12345'? That's stupid! That's like a combination for some idiot's luggage!"

President Screwb: "What's the password?"

Spaceball officer: "12345, sir!"

President Screwb: "That's the same combination as my luggage!"

From the movie Spaceballs.

Sorry, I couldn't resist! (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/biggrin.gif)

Update: Ah, Somey! You caught me, as they say on WP, in an Edit Conflict! Now the joke is lost!

This post has been edited by The Joy:

[Somey]

Ah, Somey! You caught me, as they say on WP, in an Edit Conflict! Now the joke is lost!

Sorry... (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/sad.gif) I could just get rid of mine...

[Rootology]

If they have any sense they will suspend logins until the problem is fixed.

"The encyclopedia that anyone some people can edit!"

[JohnA]

And they say that good entertainment doesn't come for free... (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/laugh.gif)

Oh and to Wikipedians watching - no it wasn't me. Not sure about Somey though...

[Cedric]

Hmmmmmm. Jeff Merkey suddenly shows back up on WP, and a short time later multiple admin accounts get hacked. Coincidence . . . ?

[Uly]

Merkey's been active with other Wikimedia projects (and on the foundation-l list) for quite some time. It's not like he just recently rediscovered Wikipedia.

[The Joy]

Sorry... sad.gif I could just get rid of mine...

No worries. Great minds think alike!

With regard to passwords, I think I'm like a whole lot of people who just use the same simple password for pretty much anything when I should be using different, highly complicated passwords for every single thing.

Now, why are people blaming the admins who lost their accounts to this interloper when its the hacker's fault for hacking into their accounts?

I take it if they ever find the hacker, he'll be in a heap of legal trouble?

[Uly]

I should say so. This would carry jail time in Flordia, if Wikimedia can get the DA to play along.

[Unrepentant Vandal]

I should say so. This would carry jail time in Flordia, if Wikimedia can get the DA to play along.

It may come under the computer misuse act here, but I wouldn't be sure. I think that the fact Wikipedia invites anyone to edit it would make the case much more complex. Certainly there wouldn't be a problem with straight vandalism.

[BobbyBombastic]

I should say so. This would carry jail time in Flordia, if Wikimedia can get the DA to play along.

It may come under the computer misuse act here, but I wouldn't be sure. I think that the fact Wikipedia invites anyone to edit it would make the case much more complex. Certainly there wouldn't be a problem with straight vandalism.

identifying the individuals is the other problem. and the harm done is not all that great. im sure wikipatriots are calling for prison time.

btw, these incidents display why anonymity of admins may not be such a good idea. {{unblock|OMG THIS IS NOT THE HAX0R UNBLOCK PLZ}} just doesn't work. pushing admins to identify their account names with their real names should ensue more hilarity. especially considering sockpuppet admins, people with conflict of interests, etc. at this points, it seems disclosing this information to the Foundation would be better than nothing.

This post has been edited by BobbyBombastic:

[the fieryangel]

If I were an admin, I'd be sort of embarassed to have people find out that my password was fuckyou, but I guess that that's not a big deal at WP with people like Makemi spouting the "F" word even in discussions about Opera...

Oh, and if you have any doubts about YOUR password, you can try David Gerard's handy-dandy anti-phishing searchbox up there on the right of the page.....

come on, y'all trust him, doncha???

[Alkivar]

Actually Somey, admins are able to use block/protect/delete when they're still blocked, so it wouldn't have an effect if he blocked all the administrators.

Certainly would be hilarious.

not quite accurate. Admins while blocked cannot edit, protect or delete pages while blocked. They can still block/unblock however. They can also unblock themselves.

This post has been edited by Alkivar:

[LamontStormstar]

A lot of other organizations have a multitude of different security options in place just to keep this sort of thing from happening. Sitekeys to prevent phishing sites Various verification stuff like making people confirm their identity if the site can't recognize their computer by past cookies. But even before that, even Windows to my knowledge has stuff where it can prevent you from using a simple password and can force you to change it all the time.

Wikipedia instead has the manpower people watching the site nonstop.

As for the controversy of if admins who let their accounts be compromised be allowed status back, I think that they probably should have several months of suspension before letting them back.

This post has been edited by LamontStormstar:

[Unrepentant Vandal]

As for the controversy of if admins who let their accounts be compromised be allowed status back, I think that they probably should have several months of suspension before letting them back.

Why?

/it's perfectly credible they didn't appreciate the severity of hteir actions.

[michael]

Not Tony the Marine! This is madness! Absolute madness! What is this person's agenda? Is he a disgruntled former Wikipedian or something? Or some crazed prankster?

$10 says Cplot! Does anyone raise $15 for Willy?

Willy was just an immature page move vandal. He also apparently repented nad contributed positively for a time, but his legacy is continued by the legion sof imposters. Cplot...he was just an annoying 9/11 conspirast, who also employed extremely effective tactics to be able to create a whole ton of accounts. Neither says password cracker to me.

[Rootology]

Neither says password cracker to me.

I agree, I was joking. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wink.gif) I like GNAA guess, but who knows.

[JTM]

As to the identity of the hacker I just have two words:

Brian Peppers.

That is all.

[LamontStormstar]

As for the controversy of if admins who let their accounts be compromised be allowed status back, I think that they probably should have several months of suspension before letting them back.

Why?

/it's perfectly credible they didn't appreciate the severity of hteir actions.

Well it's more like you screw up at work, you get at least a reprimand. Tiime off would be something instead of "you're all forgiven for having an easily guessed password that let goatse get on the site notice"