Where are shoutbox comments stored?

[Joe Dobiecki-Davies]

Hi,

I have installed the 'shoutbox sidebar' plugin on my website, and have found that people are repeatedly abusing it with malicious requests to try and upload shells to my server. Where would the shoutbox comments be stored (URL wise) so that I can see exactly who is posting these malicious requests. I cannot access the server because I don't own the server. Someone else looks after it for me.

regards,
-Joe

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Shoutbox comments are stored in the Database, serendipity_shoutbox.

Regards,
Garvin

[Joe Dobiecki-Davies]

What would the URL be? (e.g. http://www.jdavies.me.uk/shoutbox/comments.php)

Regards,
-Joe

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

What do you mean? The shoutbox plugin is embedded into serendipity, so it appears on all your blog pages...?!?

Regards,
Garvin

[Joe Dobiecki-Davies]

for example,

In 'shoutpro' the comments are stored in a file called: shouts.php.

e.g. http://www.cutekc.com/shoutpro/shouts.php (real site)

Regards,
-Joe

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Yeah. In serendipity, they are stored in the database table serendipity_shoutbox. You need to use a tool like phpMyAdmin to access database tables.

Regards,
Garvin

[Joe Dobiecki-Davies]

Hi,

Would I need server access to grab the URL where they are stored?

Regards,
-Joe

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

There IS NO URL.

The DATA IS STORED IN A DATABASE.

You might want to lookup Wikipedia for "MySQL" or "database". Also lookup "phpMyAdmin", it is the tool of server access of choice that you can use to manage database tables.

Best regards,
Garvin

[judebert]

Wooo, Garvin must be reeling from the anesthesia.

You want a URL to a file where the comments are listed, right? But there's no such thing in s9y. We lovingly insert each comment into a database instead, and carefully extract only the ones we need whenever we need them. That means we don't have to depend on file permissions, or disk access times.

Unfortunately, you can't read a database the same way you can a file. It's not accessible through a simple URL. You need a database tool. Most hosting services provide such a tool. In the case of a MySQL database (the most common), the most common tool is phpMyAdmin. It lets you read the database through your web browser. The URL to the phpMyAdmin tool is known only by your hosting service, and it'll probably require you to know your database credentials.

Once you can see the database, go look at the serendipity_shoutbox table. Each comment is a separate record in that table.

[MrPotatoes]

Hi!

There IS NO URL.

The DATA IS STORED IN A DATABASE.

You might want to lookup Wikipedia for "MySQL" or "database". Also lookup "phpMyAdmin", it is the tool of server access of choice that you can use to manage database tables.

Best regards,
Garvin

lmao-irl

[Joe Dobiecki-Davies]

Ok. Thanks.