My gallery is gone AGAIN. This time, even the REPOSTS have been deleted. The eight repost pictures between now and Dec 13 have been deleted yet again. My gallery now is down to two images. Seriously. What is happening? I think it's time I made a new account ...

you changed your password? and/or posted a link to your work in the past several minutes with "sessionid=whatever" in it? drac

Damn! Why does someone have it in for you? Also, just a thought I accidently logged in once at a college pc and forgot to uncheck the autologgin. Is there a pc that you are auto logging in on anywhere? I wonder if changing your password would have any effect if that were the case? Just a thought.

Not sure if I was clear on what I said. If you log in on a computer and have the auto login checked which it automatically is and you don't 'log out', then someone could check the browsers list of recent url's and out of curiousity click on renderosity and be automatically logged in as you. Its scary but I believe that it can happen. Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Nope. I've changed all my passwords right after it happened the first time, my login is only automatic at my home computer, and I never really found out what this sessionID thing is. All I know is that Zhann keeps telling us never to use them. Grrr ... I'm both frustrated and perplexed.

That SUCKS! Once is kinda "ok, moving on" but twice means something is up. Talk to the PTB, maybe they get a list of IP's that logged into your account.

That is so wrong that someone did that to you! I hope they get to the bottom of this and ban whoever did it!

ok this is an issue that needs checking into. I just did a check on something to do with the link from my gallery, even uploaded an image for this. After getting the link for that image then going to someone elses gallery and paying attention to a couple of things then placing them in my original link i can view their image but can't delete it. MoonGoat someone is accessing your account by either using your computer or you have a key logger on the computer which is sending out everything you type to someone. I'm not sure if you have anything on your computer for searching out spyware but if not then go get spybot search and destroy from www.lavasoft.com and then update the defenitions for it and scan your pc. reason i bring this up is because my wife had something going wrong with an account she had on a forum where she was a mod, after scanning her computer we found two key loggers on it. Also if you have someone that has access to your computer and have their own email account they can get key loggers that enable them to have log files sent to that email account of everything you type on the PC, yes including usernames and passwords..it always pays to be careful..

I'm trying, guys. I haven't talked to the admins yet, but I'm looking all over for security holes. I found an average amount of blips with my typical ad-aware and hijack-this spyware sweeps. Furthermore, I've just learned that my Yahoo! mail account has been compromised as well. Somehow, whether this was a malicious virus program or a real live intruder, an email went out to my entire address book saying "f*** you". It has been brought to my attention that one former member "cloneX" might once again be trying to attack me obsessively. This still scares the crap out of me, but I thought he had been banned from renderosity. Does that still mean he could attack me? GAH this is SO freaking frustrating.

0_o!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!
That is so wrong....

Script Kiddies have nothing better to do.
This definitely needs some looking into. I would be thinking on the lines of what CrazyDawg said about the key logger. Hope you get it all figured out soon.

Whoever's doing this to you needs their knees stapled together. A general note on security, think of losing IE if you use it and getting a different browser. Make a list of all the processes you having running and then do a web search on each one in turn, you may garner info that would help ID a key logger or other spyware. Check out your firewall settings, if you don't have one, get one - zoneAlarm is the one that springs to mind and that has a free version. If you use a router for your ADSL, ensure that the router firewall has SPI (Stateful Packet Insepction) switched on and get it to log all transactions - look for any strange IPs regularly addressed in the log.

or if you really want to get paranoid, you can set the router to only accept connections (within the network) from the MAC address of each PC. You can get that from a DOS prompt by typing 'ipconfig /all |More' (allows you to look at each screenful individually). Get the MAC addy for each machine, then set up the security option to do that (varies by vendor and OS, otherwise I could tell ya).

ROTFL, I was trying to keep my paranoia level at normal rather then Geek :) - my home wifi is MAC locked (hangs head in shame...)

i feel for you moongoat. i think all of us would be pretty pissed if all our stuff was deleted. could it be as simple as somebody getting a hold of your password?

MoonGoat i have no idea whats going on apart from the things i mentioned before. Now this section is not for you mate but mainly aimed at the staff of Renderosity, i mean those in the know that the forum mods. One would think that you the staff could/would have some way of checking up to see how something like this is happening. I know i can check up on the game site i'm an Admin on and find out who logs into an account and what IP they use. Please don't tell us you don't have the capability to do that on this site. If you don't then i would like to suggest you do something and get that capability setup so you can check things out when something like this happens. God no wonder i have lost interest in this community, when you the staff let things like this go on and you don't act upon it..

You should get Process Explorer and check to see if any bad proggies are on your computer. Then perhaps get some firewall deal that monitors your internet traffic. I suppose you could clear your cache and cookies too. You never know these days. And if that doesn't do it (provided you're using Firefox), fully uninstall it (remove all associated folders, etc.) and then do a fresh new install. (This is on the chance that there may be some malicious extentions out there. Somebody could do logging that way.) Also the session ID should never be posted simply because it's like giving someone the key to your account. (This applies until you logout for a given session.) If somebody was really mean, they could change your password on you and you'd really be up shit creek. Now you understand why Zhann and other say to NEVER post it.

sessionID is the identification code for your usersession. It's how the renderosity server knows that it's you going to that specific link so it can apply whatever settings go with your user, or use whatever data is stored for your user. If someone else uses this same sessionID he/she could get access to your account. I think it's safest for the session to be assigned a new key every time after a user succesfully connected using the sessionID. This way u can never visit a page twice with the same sessionID. Dunno if renderosity does this though?

SessionID only last for about 5-10 minutes, but that's still plenty of time for someone to screw you around.

@ Pakled, I've already been into network security for a while, though I've never had to do what you've described. I'm a wi-fi security geek. I'll check it out if I get any more paranoid. @ paul, rayraz, mahray ... thanks, I didn't know that. Nonetheless, it scares me. I don't believe I've ever posted a direct hyperlink to my work that included a session ID. But I can't be sure. Grrr ... I'm going to take it up with the mods over in the community forum.

Mahray, doesn't the lifespan of the sessionID depend on the code and/or on the settings on the server?

I currenly use the $_SESSION[] array for session data when I use sessions, but I'm thinking of programming my own session implementation with sessionID's that only last for page and stores session data in a d-base rather then the $_SESSION[] array. Do you think my idea for my own implementation is ok? or did I overlook safety issues?

Message edited on: 01/04/2006 04:16

Free online Anti-virus scanner; http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ I use it all the time. BUT...If I myself thought I might be in this situation...I would just go ahead and back-up, and re-format, and re-install everything. Nothing gets rid of things you don't want on your computer like that! Get a router, if just for the natural (NAT) firewall they have. IF you re-format/re-install...give your pc a different new name, give your hard drive(s) a new name, lol. Can you get a diffrerent IP? My fave program is Zone Alarm Security Suite. It has a software firewall, with a running anti-spyware & anti-virus program that doesn't bog down my PC like Mcafee and Norton does (IMHO) TRULY sorry about this crap you are going through! AgentSmith

I made an inquiry about someone else possibly logging in as you. No promises, but perhaps the Admins have an idea... AgentSmith

Thanks man, you rule. And I'm gonna try some of those programs!

I've no idea what is going on with your account but people do get attacked by keyloggers that record key strokes and report back to their masters, usually internet bank accounts passwords etc., I never type a password or address while on the internet. I always use Windows onscreen keyboard. Programs/Accessories/Accessibility/On-Screen Keyboard. I don't know if any crap exists that's capable of logging mouse clicks and then deciphering passwords etc., but I would be very surprised if there was. Takes a little bit more trouble but it's another freebie level of security. Dennis