Hello, I have been restoring my crippled site and I had everything up and running except the media. In messing around with that I now noticed that all my users are gone, except the admin (me). I looked in the database and they are gone from there. So can I import the user table back into my database and every thing will work? Or can I restore the complete database from my backup sql file?
Thanks, Bob
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If you have a sql backup with all your data that would be pretty easy and should get your users back.
You mentioned you'd had problems with your site - were you upgrading? At some point the user data tables (& other tables) were changed & this would cause a problem with replacing the db. In other words, the db should be from the same PGV version or known to be compatible.
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In comparing my SQL databases I see that the admin password, which is incripted, is different.
My plan is to save the installed database and insert into the pgv_user table all the records from the backed up database pgv_user table except the Admin record. This should give me a complete pgv_user table. Is there anything wrong with that thinking?
Right now the only record in the installed table is the admin which works
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I recommend upgrading to a the current version from a fresh install. In the worst case, you may need to restore partial functioning of your current version to get a gedcom exported.
If your site was hacked with a current version (4.2.4 or 4.3) you should contact canajun2eh. Earlier versions are vulnerable. Normally you should consult the wiki, but it appears to be down at the moment. Installation and upgrade instructions are available at the archive.org cache of the wiki at:
You might consider using a specialized PGV hosting provider that maintains high security and performs version upgrades for your site automatically. This can actually be cheaper than a web full hosting subscription. I am affiliated with ancestortree.net, and there are others (although I can't of course vouch for their security and services) listed on the Web_hosting wiki page which should be on archive.org.
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You should upgrade to the latest-and-greatest "SVN" version.
Download and upgrade instructions can be found in the recent Help topic whose title begins with "Repost: " Please follow the instructions - don't adapt them. If your situation is out of the ordinary. please contact me by e-mail.
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Canajun2eh, I get errors uploading the prepaired svn files. I have used several FTP clients . I don't have any problems when I FTP the 424 version. I used 7zip to do the un compressing.
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Well, I removed the directory places/ISR and still got a few of those same errors but I continued on with the instructions. And when I went to access the site I get " Site is not available"
The only thing wrong with my original restore is I am missing my users and my media. Cant I just insert my user table from my backed up database file in to the database. Won't that get back my users?
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As has been noted in other posts, the "site is not available" error occurs because the database connection information in the file "config.php" within the PGV Install directory is incorrect.
You need to edit the file manually to either correct the connection information or to set the $CONFIGURED variable to false. If you set this variable to false, PGV will launch the installation wizard to allow you to adjust the various configuration parameters.
You can restore the tables related to user definitions and privileges, but since your site got hacked you really DO need to do the upgrade to the latest-and-greatest. If you do this table restore before you launch PGV with the edited "config.php" file ($CONFIGURED = false), PGV will go through all the configuration steps and when it comes time to define an admin userid, you will b told that there's aleady one in existence. At this point you may be required to log in.
Note: If your admin userid and password don't work, you can recover. Dump the user tables amd verify that the e-mail address for your admin user is correct. If it's not correct, fix the e-mail address and then reload the tables. Try to log in, and use the "Lost Password" link and actions as if you were a normal user with a lost password.
The hacker might have defined a new admin userid, logged in with that ID, and then deleted your original admin userid. In this case, you'll need to manually edit the user tables to change the hacker's admin ID to what it's supposed to be (with the correct e-mail address, of course) and then go through the lost password routine.
If you're really stuck, you can e-mail me your user tables and I'll have a go at fixing things. (Been there, done that for others.) gkroll at keldine dot ca
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canajun2eh, you've been a lot of help. I'm up and running now. Everything looks good and don't think any data is missing, however I didn't re_import the Gedcom files. Is that step necessary as you described in the instructions for upgrading to SVN.
I want to make sure my instillation is stable but am afraid to mess with anything that isn't broke.
I just have one more problem that I need to fix and that is the permissions on my config.php is 644 and PGV is reporting that that is writeable. I need to change that programatically and need to find the code to do that.
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Hello:
You don't need to change the program. The "644" permission means that the owner can write or read, and everybody else can only read. This is perfectly OK.
If you truly want to get rid of the warning message (that's all it is), you can change the permission to 444.
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Sorry:
This bit was supposed to be in the last post too:
There were no table changes between 4.2.4 and the latest-and-greatest 4.3.0. These two are almost identical, with just a bunch of bug fixes and a few language updates. There WERE table changes from prior versions.
You need to do the GEDCOM re-import to make sure that the database tables are properly populated. If you're just upgrading from 4.2.4 to 4.3.0, the GEDCOM re-import isn't necessary (but won't do any harm, either).
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Even safer than 444 permissions are 440 or 400, especially on a shared host, which is the usual situation. It doesn't always work though - read the fine manual or do a bit of hacking to see if your site works with the 'other' bit set to 0.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hello, I have been restoring my crippled site and I had everything up and running except the media. In messing around with that I now noticed that all my users are gone, except the admin (me). I looked in the database and they are gone from there. So can I import the user table back into my database and every thing will work? Or can I restore the complete database from my backup sql file?
Thanks, Bob
Bob,
If you have a sql backup with all your data that would be pretty easy and should get your users back.
You mentioned you'd had problems with your site - were you upgrading? At some point the user data tables (& other tables) were changed & this would cause a problem with replacing the db. In other words, the db should be from the same PGV version or known to be compatible.
In comparing my SQL databases I see that the admin password, which is incripted, is different.
My plan is to save the installed database and insert into the pgv_user table all the records from the backed up database pgv_user table except the Admin record. This should give me a complete pgv_user table. Is there anything wrong with that thinking?
Right now the only record in the installed table is the admin which works
Sorry, ggpauly, I missed one of your questions. My site was hacked and damaged.
Bob,
I recommend upgrading to a the current version from a fresh install. In the worst case, you may need to restore partial functioning of your current version to get a gedcom exported.
If your site was hacked with a current version (4.2.4 or 4.3) you should contact canajun2eh. Earlier versions are vulnerable. Normally you should consult the wiki, but it appears to be down at the moment. Installation and upgrade instructions are available at the archive.org cache of the wiki at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110517070433/http://wiki.phpgedview.net/en/index.php?title=Installation_Guide_v4.2.x
You might consider using a specialized PGV hosting provider that maintains high security and performs version upgrades for your site automatically. This can actually be cheaper than a web full hosting subscription. I am affiliated with ancestortree.net, and there are others (although I can't of course vouch for their security and services) listed on the Web_hosting wiki page which should be on archive.org.
You should upgrade to the latest-and-greatest "SVN" version.
Download and upgrade instructions can be found in the recent Help topic whose title begins with "Repost: " Please follow the instructions - don't adapt them. If your situation is out of the ordinary. please contact me by e-mail.
Canajun2eh, I get errors uploading the prepaired svn files. I have used several FTP clients . I don't have any problems when I FTP the 424 version. I used 7zip to do the un compressing.
What error does FTP return?
Failed to convert command to 8 bit charset
This is the error I have been getting
Try deleting the "places/ISR" directory before attempting the FTP upload.
This directory contains some file names that use the Hebrew UTF-8 character set. This directory is not essential to the proper functioning of PGV.
Well, I removed the directory places/ISR and still got a few of those same errors but I continued on with the instructions. And when I went to access the site I get " Site is not available"
The only thing wrong with my original restore is I am missing my users and my media. Cant I just insert my user table from my backed up database file in to the database. Won't that get back my users?
As has been noted in other posts, the "site is not available" error occurs because the database connection information in the file "config.php" within the PGV Install directory is incorrect.
You need to edit the file manually to either correct the connection information or to set the $CONFIGURED variable to false. If you set this variable to false, PGV will launch the installation wizard to allow you to adjust the various configuration parameters.
You can restore the tables related to user definitions and privileges, but since your site got hacked you really DO need to do the upgrade to the latest-and-greatest. If you do this table restore before you launch PGV with the edited "config.php" file ($CONFIGURED = false), PGV will go through all the configuration steps and when it comes time to define an admin userid, you will b told that there's aleady one in existence. At this point you may be required to log in.
Note: If your admin userid and password don't work, you can recover. Dump the user tables amd verify that the e-mail address for your admin user is correct. If it's not correct, fix the e-mail address and then reload the tables. Try to log in, and use the "Lost Password" link and actions as if you were a normal user with a lost password.
The hacker might have defined a new admin userid, logged in with that ID, and then deleted your original admin userid. In this case, you'll need to manually edit the user tables to change the hacker's admin ID to what it's supposed to be (with the correct e-mail address, of course) and then go through the lost password routine.
If you're really stuck, you can e-mail me your user tables and I'll have a go at fixing things. (Been there, done that for others.) gkroll at keldine dot ca
canajun2eh, you've been a lot of help. I'm up and running now. Everything looks good and don't think any data is missing, however I didn't re_import the Gedcom files. Is that step necessary as you described in the instructions for upgrading to SVN.
I want to make sure my instillation is stable but am afraid to mess with anything that isn't broke.
I just have one more problem that I need to fix and that is the permissions on my config.php is 644 and PGV is reporting that that is writeable. I need to change that programatically and need to find the code to do that.
Hello:
You don't need to change the program. The "644" permission means that the owner can write or read, and everybody else can only read. This is perfectly OK.
If you truly want to get rid of the warning message (that's all it is), you can change the permission to 444.
Sorry:
This bit was supposed to be in the last post too:
There were no table changes between 4.2.4 and the latest-and-greatest 4.3.0. These two are almost identical, with just a bunch of bug fixes and a few language updates. There WERE table changes from prior versions.
You need to do the GEDCOM re-import to make sure that the database tables are properly populated. If you're just upgrading from 4.2.4 to 4.3.0, the GEDCOM re-import isn't necessary (but won't do any harm, either).
Even safer than 444 permissions are 440 or 400, especially on a shared host, which is the usual situation. It doesn't always work though - read the fine manual or do a bit of hacking to see if your site works with the 'other' bit set to 0.