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Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

wikimediastatus.net

251–260 of 405 posts

Re: Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

#251
post #125

See the public phab ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T419143 In short, a Wikimedia Foundation account was doing some sort of test which involved loading a large number of user scripts. They decided to just start loading random user scripts, instead of creating some just for this test. The user who ran this test is a Staff Security Engineer at WMF, and naturally they decided to do this test under their highly…

300 million dollar organization btw

Re: Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

#252
post #125

See the public phab ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T419143 In short, a Wikimedia Foundation account was doing some sort of test which involved loading a large number of user scripts. They decided to just start loading random user scripts, instead of creating some just for this test. The user who ran this test is a Staff Security Engineer at WMF, and naturally they decided to do this test under their highly…

This is a pretty egregious failure for a staff security engineer

[flagged]

Re: Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

#254
post #125

See the public phab ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T419143 In short, a Wikimedia Foundation account was doing some sort of test which involved loading a large number of user scripts. They decided to just start loading random user scripts, instead of creating some just for this test. The user who ran this test is a Staff Security Engineer at WMF, and naturally they decided to do this test under their highly…

I'm guessing, "1> Hey Claude, your script ran this malicious script!"

"Claude> Yes, you're absolutely right! I'm sorry!"

Re: Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would anyone test in production???!!!

Selecting the wrong environment in your test setup by mistake? I refuse to believe that someone on the security team intentionally tested random user scripts in production on purpose.

> I refuse to believe that someone on the security team intentionally tested random user scripts in production on purpose.

Do I have a bridge to sell you, oh boy

Re: Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

#257
post #125

See the public phab ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T419143 In short, a Wikimedia Foundation account was doing some sort of test which involved loading a large number of user scripts. They decided to just start loading random user scripts, instead of creating some just for this test. The user who ran this test is a Staff Security Engineer at WMF, and naturally they decided to do this test under their highly…

Didn't realise this was some historic evil script and not some active attacker who could change tack at any moment. That makes the fix pretty easy. Write a regex to detect the evil script, and revert every page to a historic version without the script.

Are you sure? Are you $150 million ARR sure? Are you $150 million ARR, you'd really like to keep your job, you're not going to accidentally leave a hole or blow up something else, sure?

I agree, mostly, but I'm also really glad I don't have to put out this fire. Cheering them on from the sidelines, though!

Re: Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

#258

Wow. This worm is fascinating. It seems to do the following: - Inject itself into the MediaWiki:Common.js page to persist globally, and into the User:Common.js page to do the same as a fallback - Uses jQuery to hide UI elements that would reveal the infection - Vandalizes 20 random articles with a 5000px wide image and another XSS script from basemetrika.ru - If an admin is infected, it will use the Special:Nuke page…

There doesn’t seem to be an ulterior motive beyond “Muahaha, see the trouble I can cause!”

Re: Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

#259
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't realise this was some historic evil script and not some active attacker who could change tack at any moment. That makes the fix pretty easy. Write a regex to detect the evil script, and revert every page to a historic version without the script.

Letting ancient evil code run? Have we learned nothing from A Fire Upon the Deep ?!

"It was really just humans playing with an old library. It should be safe, using their own automation, clean and benign.

This library wasn't a living creature, or even possessed of automation (which here might mean something more, far more, than human)."

Re: Wikipedia was in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True but it does say something that such a script was able to lie dormant for so long.

Why would anyone test in production???!!!

There are plenty of ways to safely test in production. For one thing you need to limit the scope of your changes.
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