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Guests replying to topics and other strange things

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stopnswop2
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Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by stopnswop2 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 4:24 am

When I check who's online, a lot of the guests are displayed as doing all sorts of weird things they shouldn't be able to do such as replying to posts, sending private messages, and viewing user control panel...

How is that even happening? Lol


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craig11152
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by craig11152 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:55 am

I wasn't aware of anything like that. Where are you seeing this?


I no longer directly engage trolls

stopnswop2
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by stopnswop2 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 6:19 pm

craig11152 wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:55 am
I wasn't aware of anything like that. Where are you seeing this?
When you go view who is online, there is an option to show guests (unregistered users)


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SteveS
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by SteveS » Tue Feb 12, 2019 8:04 am

Can't reply nor create new threads without logging in. About all you can do without logging in is read and search.



stopnswop2
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by stopnswop2 » Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:20 am

Correct, which makes this very odd!


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SteveS
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by SteveS » Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:04 pm

They aren't doing anything else. It's not possible.



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craig11152
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by craig11152 » Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:20 pm

stopnswop2 wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 6:19 pm
craig11152 wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:55 am
I wasn't aware of anything like that. Where are you seeing this?
When you go view who is online, there is an option to show guests (unregistered users)
I know that but where are you seeing them "replying to posts, sending private messages, and viewing user control panel..."


I no longer directly engage trolls

stopnswop2
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by stopnswop2 » Wed Feb 13, 2019 10:52 pm

When you view who is online, it shows you what each person is currently doing.

If you enable it to show guests, some of them are always doing things that are not possible.

Like just now I checked and one guest is "composing private message" and another is "replying to message in Chatterbox"


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Deleted User 13307

Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by Deleted User 13307 » Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:08 am

Those "guests" are more than likely bots that are probing the software for a backdoor way in. That part of the phpbb software is likely written so that those attempts are displayed as what you are seeing.



stopnswop2
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by stopnswop2 » Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:26 am

Howard Jones wrote:
Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:08 am
Those "guests" are more than likely bots that are probing the software for a backdoor way in. That part of the phpbb software is likely written so that those attempts are displayed as what you are seeing.
Ahh, good thinking. I never thought of that possibility!


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SteveS
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by SteveS » Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:29 am

I looked at it and saw what has been described. Examples of guests and logged in user:

"Guest" "Replying to message in Metro Detroit/SE Michigan" "Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:35 am"
"Guest" "Replying to message in Chatterbox" "Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:33 am"
"szmigiel" "Viewing topics in Metro Detroit/SE Michigan" "Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:44 am"

Sometimes there is a red icon with a lower case letter t next to Guest. Don't know what that means. Clicking on the icon did nothing.

As a test I used a separate browser coming from an unrelated IP address and read the forum without logging in followed by an attempt to reply to a post which gave the login prompt as expected. In my logged in sesssion I never did see my separate guest session listed as reading nor trying to reply to a post in that forum no matter how long I waited nor after refreshing my screen.

Maybe it is all bot stuff as mentioned.



stopnswop2
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by stopnswop2 » Thu Feb 14, 2019 7:19 pm

That was actually my original thought on it.
That people were attempting to reply and things while not logged in, and when they get the login screen, it will display their activity as whatever they tried to do.
I guess it has to be bots afterall


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Matt
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by Matt » Wed Feb 20, 2019 8:25 am

When you log in, you can check the box that says hide my online status. I'm assuming that if individuals have checked that, they are referred to as "Guest".


What's more pathetic: harassing an old man who is paying to do a radio show or supporting a grifter like Trump?

stopnswop2
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by stopnswop2 » Wed Feb 20, 2019 1:55 pm

Matt wrote:
Wed Feb 20, 2019 8:25 am
When you log in, you can check the box that says hide my online status. I'm assuming that if individuals have checked that, they are referred to as "Guest".
No. They are referred to as "Hidden Users"


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FET-500
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Re: Guests replying to topics and other strange things

Post by FET-500 » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:59 am

SteveS wrote:
Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:04 pm
They aren't doing anything else. It's not possible.
Yes it is.... Did you forget the recent page deface? viewtopic.php?f=16&t=45907



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