Server Error Reports

[Vince]

Hi,

Sorry if this isn't the place to post this, but it's by far the best I can find...

I am having problems attaching pictures to my topics.

Had the problem for the first time a few days ago. Took a few pics in a row of the setup on my workbench, repairing a CD player, so all pics are technically identical : dimensions, file format (JPG) , compression ratio etc.. only the data / contents of the pictures change. Yet, some pictures will upload just fine, but some will not. No matter how many times I try... it just refuse to attach them. It uploads them, but once uploaded I guess it runs some clever AI to "look" at the pictures... and decides it doesn't like that particular pic, and returns the following message :

Code: [Select]

" Your attachment has failed security checks and cannot be uploaded. Please consult the forum administrator ".

"failed SECURITY checks " ?!    How dangerous and threatening can a broken 30 year old CD player be ?! .................

The latest failure was a few minutes ago, tried to upload a screenshot of my oscilloscope to show a waveform :

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/vintage-cd-player-repair-philips-cdc-486-6-disc-changer/msg3383122/#msg3383122

Would love to attach the picture for you to look at it, run whatever test on it to see what triggers the server, but of course can't attach it, chicken and egg ! 

Tried to fool the server by changing the file extension fro PG to HEX, hoping that would keep it from being "analyzed" but no luck, even as  hex file it gives the same error message...

I guess I could send it to directly via e-mail to bypass the forum, if you have one you are willing to trust a random user with ?  I am not a spam robot, I swear... 

Hoping this temperamental behaviour can be fixed, not being able to upload pictures reliably on a forum in 2020 feels rather weird 

Regards,

Vince

[Vince]

Found a work-around, so here goes the offending picture... what's wrong with it ?


I converted it from JPG to PNG and the forum accepts it now. However this is not a "solution" because the file size goes up by a factor of 10 or so, no less. That's unacceptable 

[SilverSolder]

Found a work-around, so here goes the offending picture... what's wrong with it ?


I converted it from JPG to PNG and the forum accepts it now. However this is not a "solution" because the file size goes up by a factor of 10 or so, no less. That's unacceptable 

Maybe you can zip the offending JPEG file and attach?

[Vince]

Yes that's an idea ! Let's try that... it worked ! 

[SilverSolder]

Yes that's an idea ! Let's try that... it worked ! 

 

There have been other reports of JPEGs getting flagged for security issues.  Wonder if this is just some kind of anti-virus fingerprinting snafu?

[McBryce]

This has something to do with the Forum software being used, because I get that issue on another Forum too that uses the same software. I've found that certain programs cause the issue. If I save a jpg with Irfanview 64 they often get rejected. If I save the same picture using MSPaint the error goes away.

McBryce.

[beanflying]

Using the same version of Irfanview for the last year+ and same issue with me and JPG's in the last week so yep PNG's to solve this bug. I suspect it is a permissions issue with maybe a new release or a new version of a mod that Dave has installed that needs a tweak.

[floobydust]

I keep getting the "Your attachment has failed security checks and cannot be uploaded. Please consult the forum administrator.", then the Modify Message goes into a coma.
But weird- it's even for .jpg's that are already posted a year or more ago, same file. Only the Russian hackers are embedding badness in jpg's.

edit I have a pic "34470a ref.jpg" successfully uploaded in 2017 at https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/ultra-precision-reference-ltz1000/msg1315334/#msg1315334
that lately won't upload without the error message. I tried a few times to upload it here in this post and it failed, then it's working fine. UGH

[bd139]

Had the same. Given up 

[MK14]

I'm sometimes intermittently getting, the following:
(At a VERY approximate rate, of 1 in every 10 Forum page accesses).

Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

E.g. About 1 minute ago. 12:31 AM UK time.
Which in UTC is:

00:31
Thursday, 31 December 2020
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

(Yes, identical, at this time of year).

[tautech]

Me too and Quote doesn't work. 

In some thread thumbnails are not loading yet the link for them is there. 

Maybe SMF has got on the happy new year juice a bit early. 

[tautech]

Me too and Quote doesn't work. 

In some thread thumbnails are not loading yet the link for them is there. 

Maybe SMF has got on the happy new year juice a bit early. 

Forum can be a right PITA with these connection issues.
Somethings not right.   

[bd139]

Yeah getting irritating now. Have multiple persistent issues now.

https://youtu.be/ps28uqkfsUw

[gnif]

Can someone please provide one of the offending files so I can investigate? Seems SMF added some very primitive and poorly implemented security checking code for infected files.

Code: [Select]

preg_match('~(iframe|\\<\\?|\\<%|html|eval|body|script\W|[CF]WS[\x01-\x0C])~i', $prev_chunk . $cur_chunk) === 1)
The final match in this is likely to trigger on tons of stuff, a very dumb move.

Edit:

I have re-written the check logic, it should be far more reliable and also yield better protection. This should also stop people from being able to upload forum breaking images.
Test images attached

[beanflying]

Formerly Failed Jpeg. Dropbears are a real threat. 

Unless you changed something Gnif this same picture was failing the security check last time I tried it as a jpeg so???

Edit of my edit  seems to be ok again then - good work 

[gnif]

I'm sometimes intermittently getting, the following:
(At a VERY approximate rate, of 1 in every 10 Forum page accesses).

Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

E.g. About 1 minute ago. 12:31 AM UK time.
Which in UTC is:

00:31
Thursday, 31 December 2020
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

(Yes, identical, at this time of year).

I resolved this last night, the 'thanks' plugin was at fault, it generates the `'top 10` stats in a very very poor way for the forum stats page and was bogging the database down. I don't think whoever wrote that plugin had forums the size of EEVBlog in mind. For now (perhaps forever) I have disabled the code causing the issue, as such the top 10 is blank now.

[tautech]

Certainly the Stats page loads in an instant now whereas before the sever always took some time to think about it.

Good job gnif ! 

[bd139]

Big improvement. Nice one 

[tautech]

Now the only real nuisance that needs attention is the first attachment in a reply when for some reason another attachment you've previously uploaded gets added to your post instead of the one you wanted. 

For some time we've been skipping the 1st attachment and only using 2nd and subsequent which results in bypassing this problem. 

[Vince]

I have re-written the check logic, it should be far more reliable and also yield better protection. This should also stop people from being able to upload forum breaking images.
Test images attached

Wow, thanks a lot ! 

Glad to see there is someone here that knows this forum stuff, well done 

[mnementh]

*Airmails gnif a New Year's toast*

Thanks!

mnem

[gnif]

Now the only real nuisance that needs attention is the first attachment in a reply when for some reason another attachment you've previously uploaded gets added to your post instead of the one you wanted. 

For some time we've been skipping the 1st attachment and only using 2nd and subsequent which results in bypassing this problem. 

I have some time today to try to track this one down.... see what bad thing SMF did to break this too

[tautech]

Now the only real nuisance that needs attention is the first attachment in a reply when for some reason another attachment you've previously uploaded gets added to your post instead of the one you wanted. 

For some time we've been skipping the 1st attachment and only using 2nd and subsequent which results in bypassing this problem. 

I have some time today to try to track this one down.... see what bad thing SMF did to break this too

IIRC it was associated with a plugin that gave problems and Dave disabled. That also killed the pic insertion feature so everyone had to go back to using IMG flags.
Not such a problem for those of us that have been around here for a few years where it was just standard practice.

Maybe a few pages back in this thread you can find Daves comments and actions about this.

[gnif]

We must be thinking about different issues then, I am talking about the one where the full size image gets replaced by a future image post. My investigation points to an issue with GlusterFS.

[gnif]

Sorry about the short outage people, doing some quite extensive server upgrades to allow us to upgrade GlusterFS

Edit: Please be aware that this is still in progress, minor interruptions are to be expected