Regarding Malarbor...
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 3:35 am
I got a message from Erik asking me for the Malarbor password. Apparently the rumor is that I'm responsible for the Malarbor messages.
I admit that I was the one who first created the Malarbor-bar, and that Delphi gave me a password for it back when he helped create the new board. I used to update it pretty regularly. But it was hard to remember to keep doing it, and I wasn't really good at sounding evil, so I stopped.
Imagine my surprise when the bar continued updating without my input.
I asked Delphi, the only other person who had the password, whether he had been updating it. He said he hadn't. I asked the few people in our community who could hack whether they knew anything about it. They said they didn't. I launched an official SHINE investigation into the matter, and Delphi helped...this was back when we were trying to deny Delphi was even part of SHINE, so of course we didn't tell anyone. We tried to trace the IP of the person who was inputting the Malarbor update commands and there was no IP. There was no one sending Malarbor messages to update.
Delphi checked everything he could, but the conclusion remained the same. At this point, we admitted it was beyond Delphi's abilities, and we enlisted Ari in the investigation. Ari double-checked everything Delphi had done, and he confirmed that no computer had sent any information to the Malarbor-bar in the months before the investigation began.
I decided to see if the hacker had changed the password, and tried updating Mal with my old pw. I typed in (I still remember this) the announcement "This is a test of the Malarbor-bar. Please disregard." I saved it. Then I checked the forum to see if it showed up.
The bar on the forum read "Malarbor takes no commands from puny mortals! Your test FAILS!"
This message stayed up for about ten minutes before reverting back to the usual announcement, just long enough for me to show it to Delphi and Ari. They tried updating the bar themselves, with similar results. We freaked out and decided to delete the Malarbor-bar. I don't know PHP, so I can't tell you the technical details, but in layman's terms the Malarbor-bar could not be deleted.
I've never tried to change the Malarbor-bar again since then. I haven't talked about this to anyone before because I knew no one would believe me. But I thought I'd tell you the reason why I can't give you the Malarbor password, even though I know you won't take it seriously.
Malarbor's way beyond any of our capacity to update now, and I suggest for the sake of your sanity that you don't even try.
I admit that I was the one who first created the Malarbor-bar, and that Delphi gave me a password for it back when he helped create the new board. I used to update it pretty regularly. But it was hard to remember to keep doing it, and I wasn't really good at sounding evil, so I stopped.
Imagine my surprise when the bar continued updating without my input.
I asked Delphi, the only other person who had the password, whether he had been updating it. He said he hadn't. I asked the few people in our community who could hack whether they knew anything about it. They said they didn't. I launched an official SHINE investigation into the matter, and Delphi helped...this was back when we were trying to deny Delphi was even part of SHINE, so of course we didn't tell anyone. We tried to trace the IP of the person who was inputting the Malarbor update commands and there was no IP. There was no one sending Malarbor messages to update.
Delphi checked everything he could, but the conclusion remained the same. At this point, we admitted it was beyond Delphi's abilities, and we enlisted Ari in the investigation. Ari double-checked everything Delphi had done, and he confirmed that no computer had sent any information to the Malarbor-bar in the months before the investigation began.
I decided to see if the hacker had changed the password, and tried updating Mal with my old pw. I typed in (I still remember this) the announcement "This is a test of the Malarbor-bar. Please disregard." I saved it. Then I checked the forum to see if it showed up.
The bar on the forum read "Malarbor takes no commands from puny mortals! Your test FAILS!"
This message stayed up for about ten minutes before reverting back to the usual announcement, just long enough for me to show it to Delphi and Ari. They tried updating the bar themselves, with similar results. We freaked out and decided to delete the Malarbor-bar. I don't know PHP, so I can't tell you the technical details, but in layman's terms the Malarbor-bar could not be deleted.
I've never tried to change the Malarbor-bar again since then. I haven't talked about this to anyone before because I knew no one would believe me. But I thought I'd tell you the reason why I can't give you the Malarbor password, even though I know you won't take it seriously.
Malarbor's way beyond any of our capacity to update now, and I suggest for the sake of your sanity that you don't even try.
