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Both related to the same problem, second one is an updated fix for the first issue.

 

Invision Power Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of IP.Gallery 5.0.3 and IP.Blog 2.6.1.

IP.Gallery 5.0.3

IP.Gallery is a fully-featured photo and multimedia sharing app for the IPS Community Suite. Create albums, upload photos, discuss the hottest shots and much more.


This release resolves issues reported since the release of IP.Gallery 5.0.2.

A list of bugs reported in 5.0.2 and fixed in 5.0.3 can be seen in our tracker.


IP.Blog 2.6.1

IP.Blog enables users to create and maintain their own individual or group blogs right from within your community, to share ideas & thoughts.

A list of bugs reported in 2.6.0 and fixed in 2.6.1 can be seen in our tracker.

Continue reading...

 

We are nearly ready to release the supported version of IP.Board 3.4 and are very excited to get this great new release out to you.

Beta Testing

We are currently doing a public beta test of IP.Board 3.4. If you are comfortable testing pre-release software please consider testing and letting us know any bugs you might find. You can find the pre-release on our forums but you will need to login as an active IPS Client to access. The more people who test our beta releases the better for everyone!

What's New

Please read these blog entries for a full list and explanation of what's new in this release.

• IP.SEO Removed (we have removed IP.SEO and merged all its functionality right into IP.Board!)
  
• Editor Improvements
  
• IPS Connect (please note that with the release of Connect our old Converge product will no longer function)
  
• SEO Improvements
  
• VigLink Integration
  
• Best Answer Feature
  
• AdminCP Interface Enhancements
  
• Bulk Mail with Mandrill
  
• Miscellaneous Enhancements
  
• IPS CDN Service

In addition to the specifics in the blog entries we have fixed many issues and made many smaller improvements.

New Backup Service Delayed

We had announced a new Backup Service however this service will be not be available at release time. We want to be sure the service works reliably and would rather delay a bit than give you something that may not work properly. Obviously something as important as backups on your community is something we want to feel confident about offering.


Depending on how our beta testing goes we hope to release IP.Board 3.4 by the end of November. If you are comfortable testing we encourage you to do so so we can be sure this release is as stable as possible. Thank you!

View the full article

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I might consider this. I've tested beta software on live sites before, and if it doesn't screw up every mod ever made, it might be worth trying again.

 

I'm excited

 

I went from 3.2 to 3.3 and likely will be doing 3.4 and aside from minor skin issues, i never experienced the issue with mods messing up but i have heard this quite a few times from other people that they disliked IPB simply because they updated so much that mods and stuff would not function properly so i hope this has been improved for 3.4 or won't be as bad as it has been for some people. I didnt fully understand tbh when i read the complaints on various forums.

 

3.4 should be a good release, the beta works well and not had any major issues.

 

There has been much confusion over the recent exploit reported to us and subsequently patched. I would like to personally apologize for any confusion and inconvenience caused. We have conducted a review and made appropriate changes to our policies to ensure a smoother release and notification schedule for any future incidents.

With that said, it is very important to note that while an IP.Board vulnerability did exist, its impact would have been minimal, if not non-existent on servers that have their PHP installations properly secured. I would like to touch on a couple of basics to minimize the effects of future vulnerabilities not only in IP.Board, but any other PHP application you may be using on your website.

open_basedir

It's very important that you (if you manage your own web hosting server) or your web host enable open_basedir. In a shared hosting environment without open_basedir, an attacker has the ability to exploit a vulnerability, perhaps on another customer's account, then use that vulnerability to scan for other customers on the server. From there, they could gain access to config files containing database details, write malicious files to world-writeable directories and a host of other ill-willed activities. Enabling open_basedir "locks" all internal PHP functions such as readfile() to the specified path, which is generally a temporary directory and your home directory.

disable_functions

While open_basedir is a very positive step in securing your PHP scripts, there are unfortunately instances in which it can be bypassed and this is how the recent IP.Board vulnerability gained ground so quickly. For example, the exec(), system() and passthru() functions allow a command to be issued directly to the operating system to view key system files, navigate through other users' web root directories, install 'remote shell' scripts into other users' directories, etc. without any regard to other restrictions such as open_basedir. For this reason, disable_functions should be set to disable system level functions. For example, this is a recommended disable_functions:



disable_functions = escapeshellarg,escapeshellcmd,exec,ini_alter,parse_ini_file,passthru,pcntl_exec,popen,proc_close,proc_get_status,proc_nice,proc_open,proc_terminate,show_source,shell_exec,symlink,system

You or your host may need to tweak to suit, but at a minimum, execution commands should be disabled.


Following the above, you will not necessarily create a fool-proof environment, but you will have additional reassurances that you or your host have taken appropriate measures to better secure your PHP applications.


For those that run a cPanel/WHM server you may enable open_basedir by visiting WHM and clicking the "PHP open_basedir Tweak" link under "Security Center" then clicking enable.



You may modify the disable_functions line by visiting WHM and clicking "PHP Configuration Editor" under "Service Configuration" then clicking "advanced" and searching for "disable_functions"




If you are unsure or do not have the necessary permissions to carry out these tasks, please do contact your host. You are free to link them to this blog entry as well.

I hope this helps better explain the recent security concern and what you can do to help protect yourself and your users in the future. As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you might have. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

View the full article

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It's an unfortunate fact that when you run a successful site, you attract unwanted users posting spam on your site. IP.Board has always been incredibly pro-active in preventing spam users from signing up by making use of built in tools such as the question and answer challenge, spam monitoring service and CAPTCHA systems.

I'd like to take a moment to talk about some enhancements we've made in IP.Board 3.4.0 to help prevent unwanted posts and spam.

Spam Monitoring Improvements

We've further enhanced the spam monitoring service in IP.Board 3.4.0 by adding a new option: "Do not permit the user to register an account". This reduces the amount of clean up you need to do after a new wave of attempted spam user sign-ups.

Furthermore, the "flag a member as a spammer" tool optionally deletes posted content rather than simply hiding them further reducing the amount of work needed to maintain your community.



We have also totally reworked our spammer-detection logic behind the scenes to make the spam monitoring service detect spammers more quickly. In addition to internal changes, we are also looking at direct integration with services like Project Honey Pot and others. The great thing about the spam monitoring service is that we can make improvements on our side that are instantly beneficial to your community.

keyCAPTCHA Integration
IP.Board has made good use of the popular reCAPTCHA service to limit the number of "bots" that sign up to your forum with the intent of posting spam. The idea being that a slightly jumbled selection of letters is easy enough for a human to read but more difficult for a computer program. However, some do find that the CAPTCHA images are becoming increasingly complex to keep up with more intelligently written programs to defeat them.

KeyCAPTCHA takes a novel approach to this problem by using images instead of letters and numbers. You simply arrange a few large pieces of a very simple puzzle to complete an image.



You don't need to be completely accurate when building the image, either.



This is now an option in the IP.Board Admin CP. Should you wish to enable it, you'll need to register an account with keyCAPTCHA. The link for this is contained in the setting form and is very straight forward.

As always, we look for new ways to help make running your community a little easier and we look forward to helping you keep those spammers at bay!

View the full article

Continue reading...

 

Invision Power Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of IP.Board 3.4.0!

This new release contains many refinements and new features to help promote, monetize, and grow your community.

What's New

Please read these blog entries for a full list and explanation of what's new in this release.

• IP.SEO Removed (we have removed IP.SEO and merged all its functionality right into IP.Board!)
• Editor Improvements
• IPS Connect (please note that with the release of IPS Connect our old Converge product will no longer function)
• SEO Improvements
• VigLink Integration
• Best Answer Feature
• AdminCP Interface Enhancements
• Bulk Mail with Mandrill
• Miscellaneous Enhancements
• IPS CDN Service
• Anti-Spam Improvements

In addition to the specifics in the blog entries we have fixed many issues and made many smaller improvements.

New Backup Service Delayed

We had announced a new Backup Service however this service will be not be available at release time. We want to be sure the service works reliably and would rather delay a bit than give you something that may not work properly. Obviously something as important as backups on your community is something we want to feel confident about offering.

How to Upgrade

You can access IP.Board 3.4.0 in the client area. Please follow these easy instructions for upgrading.


IP.Nexus 1.5.5 Released

This release contains an important bug fix which addresses an issue which may cause prices to be calculated incorrectly if certain combinations of discount options are used. It is strongly recommended that anyone running IP.Nexus 1.5.x upgrades as soon as possible (older versions are not affected).

This release also contains other bug fixes and enhancements, and a small feature addition which allows users to purchase account credit.


How to Upgrade

You can access IP.Nexus 1.5.5 in the client area. Please follow these easy instructions for upgrading.



Special Promotion

We are extending our Cyber Monday promotion for one more day! If you have been considering trying IPS Community Suite or are an existing client wantting to get an addition license to start a new community now is the best time.

Use coupon code CYBERMONDAY20 to get 20% off your order. This offer expires tomorrow.



IP.Board 3.2.x and Applications: End of Life Announcement

So that we can focus all of our development, support, and service efforts on the newest version 3.4, we are announcing the end of support (sometimes called end of life or EOL) for the following IPS software versions (and earlier versions):

• IP.Board 3.2.x
• IP.Blog 2.5.x
• IP.Gallery 4.x
• IP.Downloads 2.4.x
• IP.Content 2.4.x
• IP.Chat 1.3.x
• IP.Nexus 1.4.x

Technical support, installations, and services will end for these products on June 1, 2013. On that date all technical or service requests will be advised to simply upgrade to the most recent versions of the products. We will not force upgrades but will also not be able to diagnose issues or answer questions relating to the older software. Also, on that date, IPS will no longer address any new issues or bugs reported in the older software versions.

You are of course free to continue using these older versions if you wish but IPS will no longer provide assistance after the EOL date.

Security Updates

In the event an issue is discovered impacting the security of these older versions of the software, IPS will provide a patch posted in our announcements forum. We will continue to provide security updates for several months after the EOL date based on severity of the issue.

Continue reading...

 

We are happy to report some really dramatic improvements to the IPS Converters. If you have been considering switching to IPS from another community software now is the time.

Performance Improvements

One area for improvement we focused on was the overall time it took to do a conversion. Doing a conversion is always going to be a time consuming process as it involves translating all of your data from your old format to IPS format. But we have made two big improvements:

MySQL queries, where possible, now do one 'extended' query rather than thousands of smaller queries. This means your data is fetched in one, large batch and stored rather than many smaller batches.

The member conversion routine has been sped up dramatically. Some test conversions are seeing an 80% speed increase on members alone.

Example statistic: 15 million post community converted 1000 posts a second and about 800 topics a second. Converted completely in 4 hours. The old converter could take more than a day to do the same. That's a huge improvement!

Software Specific Improvements

• vBulletin Subscriptions now directly import to IP.Nexus
  
• Gallery 5 support
  
• Photopost 8 support
  
• XenForo 'likes' converted.
  
• XenForo personal conversations converted.
  
• vBulletin conversions now use the same forum/topic/post/member IDs on IPS Community Suite. This is great for SEO.

Feedback Appreciated

We are continuing to work on improvements to our converters. If you perform a conversion please submit a ticket and let us know of any issues you might experience so we can assist you.

Special Switch Promotion

If you are considering switching to the IPS Community Suite we would welcome you as a new IPS client. We are happy to provide 10% discount on new license purchases using the coupon code SWITCH at checkout. This coupon code is valid until 15 December 2012.

View the full article

Continue reading...

 

This looks pretty awesome. The vBulletin conversion URL's especially -- looks like a head on assault on vB 5.

 

Last year, we added an auto-install/upgrade tool into our client area. The tool would upload the latest version of the IPS Community Suite to your server automatically.
The way it worked was after submitting the request, you were entered into a queue, and a program on our server uploaded the files, and emailed you when it was done so that you could run the upgrader script. It normally took about 30 minutes.


30 minutes is pretty good. For someone without the technical knowledge to upgrade, it's a great alternative to asking for a support agent to do the upgrade for you (especially just after a release when everyone is doing just that). However, many users still prefer to do the upgrade themselves (after all, if you can download the source files and upload them to your server in the same time, what's the point?).


We decided we should try and get that time down. We also wanted the process to be much more seamless - so you click "Upgrade", get a loading screen, and then are taken immediately to the upgrade script when it's done, rather than waiting for an email.



Interested to see how fast we managed to get it? Take a look for yourself:
Watch Video




In addition, the system can now handle communities that have renamed their admin directory seamlessly without issue (it previously reset to /admin), and the system will automatically detect which encoding of IP.Nexus to use for your server, if applicable (previously it would only use Zend).




We really hope the Auto-Upgrader will provide a much easier way for you to keep your community up-to-date with the latest features and enhancements.


If you've not already upgraded to IP.Board 3.4, why not go and try it out now? To access the tool, simply go to the Purchases area of the client area, select the community you want to upgrade and click the big "Upgrade Now" button.

View the full article

Continue reading...

 

Invision Power Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of IP.Board 3.4.1 and IP.Nexus 1.5.6!

The release of IP.Board 3.4.1 is a maintenance release.

What's New in 3.4

Please read these blog entries for a full list and explanation of what's new in this release.

• IP.SEO Removed (we have removed IP.SEO and merged all its functionality right into IP.Board!)
• Editor Improvements
• IPS Connect (please note that with the release of IPS Connect our old Converge product will no longer function)
• SEO Improvements
• VigLink Integration
• Best Answer Feature
• AdminCP Interface Enhancements
• Bulk Mail with Mandrill
• Miscellaneous Enhancements
• IPS CDN Service
• Anti-Spam Improvements

How to Upgrade

To upgrade simply log into your client area, click on "Purchases" from the menu and select the community you wish to upgrade and click "Upgrade Now".

IP.Nexus 1.5.6 Released

The release of IP.Nexus 1.5.6 is a maintenance release.

How to Upgrade

To upgrade simply log into your client area, click on "Purchases" from the menu and select the community you wish to upgrade and click "Upgrade Now".

Continue reading...

 

Invision Power Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of IP.Content 2.3.4 and IP.Chat 1.4.2!

The release of IP.Content 2.3.4 is a maintenance release which resolves bugs reported since the release of IP.Content 2.3.3.

How to Upgrade

To upgrade simply log into your client area, click on "Purchases" from the menu and select the community you wish to upgrade and click "Upgrade Now".

IP.Chat 1.4.2 Released

The release of IP.Chat 1.4.2 is a maintenance release which resolves bugs reported since the release of IP.Chat 1.4.1.

How to Upgrade

To upgrade simply log into your client area, click on "Purchases" from the menu and select the community you wish to upgrade and click "Upgrade Now".

Continue reading...

 

Security Update: 27th December 2012

A security evaluation has revealed a critical security issue and we are releasing a critical security update today to patch this issue.

Instructions

We are providing a patch for IP.Board versions 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, and 3.1. Version 3.1 is end of life for support but we are still providing the patch for the convenience of clients who have not yet upgraded. If you are running a version less than 3.1 you should upgrade to get this and other security enhancements.

Patching is very easy:

1. Identify the version of IP.Board you are running.
2. Download and unzip the appropriate patch file below that matches your version.
3. Upload the contents of the zip to your IP.Board home directory

IP.Board 3.4.x
. ipb34_dec27.zip 13.4K 50 downloads

IP.Board 3.3.x
. ipb33_dec27.zip 13.4K 32 downloads

IP.Board 3.2.x
. ipb32_dec27.zip 13.08K 8 downloads

IP.Board 3.1.x
. ipb31_dec27.zip 12.63K 10 downloads

IP.Converge
Please be advised that if you use IP.Converge, it has also been updated to resolve a similar security issue, and to ensure compatibility with the patches being released today for IP.Board. IP.Converge is no longer officially supported and is "use at your own risk". To patch your IP.Converge installation, simply download the full package from the following URL, unzip to your computer, and then upload the contents of the "upload" folder to your server, overwriting the existing files present.

http://community.inv...739-ipconverge/

IP.Converge Login Module
Please be advised that if you use IP.Converge, and you upload the updated IP.Converge package referenced above, you will also need to upload the following updated IP.Converge login module. Download the following patch, unzip to your local computer, and then upload the auth.php file to your server at admin/sources/loginauth/ipconverge/, overwriting the existing file.
. ipconverge_login_module.zip 3.18K 4 downloads


Notes:

• When you apply the security update the bulletin in your AdminCP will still display. We keep the bulletin in place for at least a week after a security release.
• Our main software packages accessed via the client area have already been updated with this security update.
• If you are an IPS Hosting client your community will be automatically patched.

Continue reading...

 

All IPB users check your cache folder

I saw this on adminextra here
I don't have my ipb login and I don't know if I'd be able to see the content or not, but here is the link for those who do have a IPB account.
http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/375899-suspicious-file-in-cache/


Looks like the IPB hacking is on the rise, please check your cache directory for anything with a weird/random name. I dealt with a similar hack for vB on my big board and digging though my notes for all my tools I used but till then if you have shell access

Code:

find . -name "*.php" -type f -exec sed -i '/eval(base64_decode(/d' {} \;

Check out the adminextra thread, there is some discussion on this.

 

Invision Power Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of IP.Board 3.4.2

The release of IP.Board 3.4.2 is a maintenance release.

What's New in 3.4

Please read these blog entries for a full list and explanation of what's new in this release.

• IP.SEO Removed (we have removed IP.SEO and merged all its functionality right into IP.Board!)
• Editor Improvements
• IPS Connect (please note that with the release of IPS Connect our old Converge product will no longer function)
• SEO Improvements
• VigLink Integration
• Best Answer Feature
• AdminCP Interface Enhancements
• Bulk Mail with Mandrill
• Miscellaneous Enhancements
• IPS CDN Service
• Anti-Spam Improvements

How to Upgrade

To upgrade simply log into your client area, click on "Purchases" from the menu and select the community you wish to upgrade and click "Upgrade Now".

Continue reading...

 

I'd be interested to hear more about their SEO improvements, anyone on IPB upgrade yet. What did you think?

 

I just upgraded to 3.4.1 literally yesterday

I guess i need to upgrade to 3.4.2 now lol.

Not sure how to answer your question about SEO impovements.