Changes to page file names

[Sharkey]

Some of you may be aware that there is currently an exploit worm going around the 'Net that attacks phpBB forums. I have seen this worm come through my access logs hundreds of times in the last week.

Although there is NO DANGER of this worm affecting a viewer/user's computer, it is capable of causing a lot of damage to the flie system on the server which it infects, resulting in database damages and defaced pages on the site.

As a result, I have implemented many security protocols, including .htaccess rewrite rules, disallowing bots and spiders from indexing forum pages in robots.txt, and, most importantly for users of this forum, changing the name of the PHP file that generates topic threads.

What this means is that if you bookmarked a topic here before last week, that link will no longer take you to the page you are expecting. Pages indexed in Google, MSN, Yahoo and other search directories are now broken as well. Basically, any URL link to this site that includes "viewtopic.php" in the address is going to return a '404 - not found'.

It's unfortunate that topic threads here are no longer being indexed in search directories, but until this attack subsides, I have to deny all search robots from adding pages from this forum. Although I am using the latest phpBB version (v2.0.11) which is resistant to the worm exploit, attempts of the worm to invade the system (unsuccessfully) can result in bandwidth overload and access log file bloat, sometimes to the point of making the system bog down to a stop. Most of the worm attempts are being deflected with a '403 - forbidden' response, and I will atempt to keep the mod_rewrite rules in the .htaccess current as the worm mutates.

Hopefully, this one will go away soon, and once again, the forum will be indexed for advanced searches to the rest of the world.