Admin logged into forum ... but it's not me & I'm Admin

by Fender January 8th 2014, 4:11 pm

I've noticed a few times that the "Admin" account will be logged into our forum, while it's not me that logged into the Admin account. I'm the only person with the Admin password and there's no way in Gehenna that someone will have guessed my password. So, I'm assuming & hoping that it's someone from FM doing something in there.

Any thoughts? Reassurance?

by Jophy January 8th 2014, 5:17 pm

Hello,

Did you happen to perform any back up for your forum lately? Do you still have access to your account?

by Fender January 8th 2014, 6:11 pm

I was able to log in again without a problem. Last backup was performed yesterday.

by **SLGray** January 8th 2014, 6:37 pm

Did this happen right after you logged off? Sometimes there is a glitch that shows members logged on when they have logged off.

by Fender January 8th 2014, 6:49 pm

Nope. I wasn't logged in since yesterday. Then the Admin account was logged on today, before I logged in to check the password.

by Jophy January 9th 2014, 2:18 am

Fender wrote:I was able to log in again without a problem. Last backup was performed yesterday.

If it was restored to an earlier date, it might have been that you are logged in the same date that you restored it.

I suggest you to resync the forum.
https://help.forumotion.com/t50777-resynchronizing-your-forum

by Fender January 9th 2014, 3:35 am

Jophy, a backup & restore are different things. So the answer is no, I have not restored the forum recently. Some, someone was logged into my forum as Admin.

by Derri January 9th 2014, 5:12 am

When you do a backup of your forum, you're restoring it to an earlier date. So in this case, they are the same thing.

Backups of your forum data are done automatically once every 24 hours. If you choose to do a backup to an earlier date via the forum utilities, then technically you're restoring your forum to an earlier date.

by Jophy January 9th 2014, 7:37 am

Fender wrote:Jophy, a backup & restore are different things. So the answer is no, I have not restored the forum recently. Some, someone was logged into my forum as Admin.

As far as I know, they are the same:
https://help.forumotion.com/t9692-the-utilities-backup-and-restore

Just to share, a backup was also performed in the support forum long time ago, and when I was visiting the support forum as a guest, I also saw my name being logged in a period of time even though I'm not online/logged in to my account, our pro admin said that there was just a backup that was performed on the support forum(a test) and no hacking happened.

So it may be the same situation in your issue.

by Fender January 9th 2014, 3:17 pm

backup & restore are indeed different things. A backup is when you copy data/files/etc of the website at a certain point in time, so that it may be used to restore your website to that time if something happens to go wrong.. A restore is when you use (recover) saved data/files/etc from a backup.

The link that you shared tells you how to restore your forum from a backup & tells you that backups are performed automatically.

Anyhow ... this has nothing to do with a backup or a restore. I am certain of this.

Back to the issue at hand:
I have a script that runs an AJAX script that triggers a PHP script on my own server that grabs & logs the IP of users as the visit the index page (right after they log in). So I checked my logs & there is only IP that does not match my own. I'm assuming that a member of the staff at FM (probably a programmer) accessed the site with the Admin account.

by **SLGray** January 9th 2014, 6:46 pm

Forumotion does not need an account to access your forum. They have access to the database.

by Fender January 9th 2014, 6:50 pm

SLGray wrote:Forumotion does not need an account to access your forum. They have access to the database.

I understand ... I'm simply asking if it's possible that someone from FM could have possibly accessed the forum with my Admin account.

by **SLGray** January 9th 2014, 6:54 pm

Fender wrote:
SLGray wrote:Forumotion does not need an account to access your forum. They have access to the database.
I understand ... I'm simply asking if it's possible that someone from FM could have possibly accessed the forum with my Admin account.

Will did it say the IP address was coming from?

by jkh January 9th 2014, 6:57 pm

Fender wrote:I've noticed a few times that the "Admin" account will be logged into our forum, while it's not me that logged into the Admin account. Â I'm the only person with the Admin password and there's no way inÂ Gehenna that someone will have guessed my password. Â So, I'm assuming & hoping that it's someone from FM doing something in there.

Any thoughts? Â Reassurance?

That's happened to me twice now and when I looked in the Admin panel the person is logged on from France (I'm in the UK). Forumotion did admit that they'd accessed my forum using my Admin account to delete a post.

They still haven't told me why they didn't ask me to delete it. And they still haven't told me if they would even have told me that they'd accessed my account.

I think it's very sneaky. And it doesn't matter if you change your password, they can override it.

by Fender January 9th 2014, 7:08 pm

SLGray wrote:
Fender wrote:
SLGray wrote:Forumotion does not need an account to access your forum. They have access to the database.
I understand ... I'm simply asking if it's possible that someone from FM could have possibly accessed the forum with my Admin account.
Will did it say the IP address was coming from?

jkh wrote:when I looked in the Admin panel the person is logged on from France

Mine said from France as well ... Im in the US

by Jophy January 10th 2014, 10:41 am

Alright, I will ask this issue to our pro admin. Please be patient.

Thanks.

by **Shadow** January 10th 2014, 11:47 am

Hello,

As all web hosting, our technicians have to enter our databases and servers for maintenances, updates, and technical issues. Forums interpret those handlings as admin connection. As we are located in France it is absolutly normal you see France IP.

That doesn't mean we are looking at your forum content!!! But as all internet companies we have to improve daily our services (as Facebook, Google, and all other companies do..!!!)

So, do not worry about it. If you didn't give your password and foundation email to another personn, the connection you see simply comes from technicial updates or maintenances.

Thanks for your understanding.

by Fender January 10th 2014, 4:18 pm

Buttercup wrote:Hello,

As all web hosting, our technicians have to enter our databases and servers for maintenances, updates, and technical issues. Forums interpret those handlings as admin connection. As we are located in France it is absolutly normal you see France IP.

That doesn't mean we are looking at your forum content!!! But as all internet companies we have to improve daily our services (as Facebook, Google, and all other companies do..!!!)

So, do not worry about it. If you didn't give your password and foundation email to another personn, the connection you see simply comes from technicial updates or maintenances.

Thanks for your understanding.

I understand that you have to go into the forums ... just wanted a little peace of mind that it was your staff & not someone hacking into the Admin account. Thank you for the explanation! This can be closed. Thanks again.