MySQL, some tables disapeared

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Starcraftmazter
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MySQL, some tables disapeared

Post by Starcraftmazter »

Hello.

In my phpbb forums database, I have woken up to find out that several (7 I think) tables have disappeared mysteriously.

They are phpbb_config ; confirm ; disallow ; forums ; forums_prune ; posts, and I haven't found the other one for some reason, but I'm in a bit of a rush.

Anywho, I thought the tables crashed or something, but phpmyadmin is being unbearably slow plus I don't know how to check, and for some reason couldn't find anything on the net about crashed tables/databases.

Anyway, I don't want to rush into anything, if the data can somehow be recovered.

I have root access to the serve, and a backup which is 9 days old.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

If they crashed or got corrupted they shouldn't disappear, but just not want to function. I don't recall, even with a quick search, any database level checks you can perform from within MySQL. So it's quite possible you need to rebuild from the backup.
Starcraftmazter
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Post by Starcraftmazter »

Okey.

Now is there ANY non-hacker explanation for such a thing?
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

Unless your host went nuts and removed the files, I can't really think of any. Have you talked to your host?
Starcraftmazter
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Post by Starcraftmazter »

It's a dedicated server =/

All our passwords are long strings of gibberish, and we don't store them anywhere. The only thing I need to know, and do after typing it in hundreds of times is the root password, which nobody else has.

So I really would be in disbelief if anyone somehow hacked it.
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

That would depend on how secure your scripts are. :)

It may be a good idea to move away from using the root account at all.
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Ollie Saunders
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Post by Ollie Saunders »

It may be a good idea to move away from using the root account at all.
and get PHP to use a database user that doesn't have permission to drop.
Begby
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Post by Begby »

Starcraftmazter wrote: So I really would be in disbelief if anyone somehow hacked it.
There are a lot of ways to hack a site besides getting a root password. If your install of phpBB was not 100% up to date then it could have gotten hacked by any number of known exploits. Same thing with phpmyadmin or anything else you might have running on your server.

If it was hacked, then consider your entire server tainted, you will need to get someone who knows their stuff to check it out to see if they just deleted the tables or got root. If you aren't sure you may need to rebuild it and keep it patched. Who knows, someone could be running a spam bot on it by now or something.
Starcraftmazter
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Post by Starcraftmazter »

ole wrote:
It may be a good idea to move away from using the root account at all.
and get PHP to use a database user that doesn't have permission to drop.
Hey, that's a pretty good idea actually.
Begby wrote: There are a lot of ways to hack a site besides getting a root password. If your install of phpBB was not 100% up to date then it could have gotten hacked by any number of known exploits. Same thing with phpmyadmin or anything else you might have running on your server.
Server runs the latest version of everything, phpbb was updated to .22 numerous days prior to this happening.
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