Weird requests on the website

I was looking at the stats for mimor.be and I was a bit surprised to see these easy attempts to compromise data from the website.
There were several 404 errors returned on files with names such as:

  • /packet.mdb
  • /wwwroot.zip
  • /shop.rar
  • /shop.zip
  • /site.rar
  • /web.rar
  • /web.zip
  • /www.zip
  • /www.rar
  • /tomdb.mdb
  • /shop.mdb
  • /shoes.rar
  • /wwwroot.rar
  • /HSH.mdb
  • /site.zip
  • /HYTop.mdb

The fact that some people put effort & time in such web-crawling means that they have results on this.
So folks, plz stop putting database-files & backup-files in your publicly-accessible folders! This is the only remedy against such “attacks”.

Whilst I’m on web-security, let me remind you of some other dangerous things when hosting a website:

  • Use SFTP instead of FTP!  (FTP sends data & passwords unencrypted over the big bad Internet).
  • Do not use password protected directory’s on Microsoft IIS servers.
  • Manage Database and web/ftp users on a strict base. (unused logins should be removed).
  • Keep an eye on the log-files of the server.
  • If you don’t know how to program, first learn it!
  • Be careful when installing plug-ins/scripts from someone else. First review the code and user comments on it!
  • Remove unused packages/software/scripts from the server, they might form a major security leak.
  • Do not put passwords and other personal data on free webhosting spaces.
  • Be careful what tools you use. Some, such as Filezilla store usernames, passwords and other valuable credentials in an xml file (clear text) in an unencrypted directory.
  • etc …

These are security issues that are verry common, as most people tend  to think that a safe hosting/code is enough to secure a website.

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