Old TalkWX Archive

[Copasetic]

Hi All,

I'm sure a lot of you remember the old forum and like myself, miss the data that was contained within it.

Long story short, the old forum had a few problems once a lot of people were refreshing to see the latest posts if there was ever a hint of a snow event in the SE. It was hosted in a shared environment and just didn't have the resources.

There was not much in regard to sponsorship and around the 2008 timeframe I was hosting upwards of 5000 clients in various markets all on dedicated servers out of Chicago and Phoenix. I enjoyed the forum and told Jack I would handle the hardware and bandwidth.. It was neat seeing it handle a lot of people during the Feb 2014 snow event. Pretty sure that was it's standing record.

In 2015 I was relocated for work to Columbus, OH and in early 2016 I sold that hosting business but kept the old forum running on a pair of servers in Phoenix. The SAN that was handling the storage had a failure and IIRC, I was about to fly to Mexico or Canada the next morning so I paid for the datacenter staff to go hands on and swap drives. In the end, the hands on techs brought the SAN out of the fault but in the process of rebuilding the array, deleted upwards of 130TB worth of data. They admitted later that they were unsure of a step and picked the first option which was anything but rebuild but did not call me to confirm. Basically, it was wiped and new empty LUN's were presented to the servers.

Sadly, that SAN also held the backups for the forum and a few other sites. I should have just waited to land wherever and handled it myself but work life got in the way.

I sent the drives to a 3rd party recovery company and they were able to pull the data off but it really wasn't useable because of the encryption on the SAN - the hopes were to recover the data back to additional drives and pull that back in with EMC's help to decrypt it. It wasn't possible.

Time moved on and this forum replaced it.

With all of that said, recently I had another project helping someone move a large application from on-prem to Azure and I used a few servers that I keep going across the US to do that and I was digging through a ton of files that I've collected over the years and I found several TB of daily/weekly/monthly backups of the old forum scattered around.

I would need to install NetBackup, a really old version - lol - and try to roll those up in to a useable collection. I'm not sure how recent I can go but there is a possibility to be able to bring it back. For what it's worth, the last differential was October of 2015.

I don't mind to put the work in to try and stand it back up in a read-only state for archive reference. Not to mention, I'm not even sure I can get the old IPB version it was running on.

There might be some good data there, things like Ivan, Katrina, April 27th. Some of those threads were legendary.

I think it would be neat, but do any of you even care about that anymore? Do any of the old Admin's still remember your account info and passwords?

 

[thundersnow]

This is huge news if that is possible!

 

[Copasetic]

I was able to get a roll up to July 2012..

17:25:44 Restoring \DB\TalkWeatherBackup 07082012.sql
Running: mysql.exe --defaults-file="c:\users\admini~1\appdata\local\temp\tmpwrgpvo.cnf" --protocol=tcp --host=localhost --user=root --port=3306 --default-character-set=utf8 --comments < "\\DB\\TalkWeatherBackup 07082012.sql"
17:28:21 Import of \DB\TalkWeatherBackup 07082012.sql has finished

It restored into MySql, a really old and seriously high security risk version mind you... But the data is there.

I've about reached my limit for the day, I will work on rolling up to that 2015 mark.

 

[Copasetic]

Update.. looks like the last differentials I can sequentially restore run up to around midnight January 8th, 2013. After that there are gaps that start causing issues with the database. Not sure if this was a NBU problem or something with a MySQL version or what.

This is a good start and I can see about importing parts of the remaining 2013-15 data manually.

I am working with Invision to get access to the forum software as it was a lifetime license.

More to come!

 

[Copasetic]

Domain is registered: talkwxarchive.com

More to come!

 

[Copasetic]

Still *a lot* of things to finalize however, for the most part. it's back!

I will post here when it is ready. Here is a blast from the past.

 

[Copasetic]

I know that sadly, we lost Mr. Watkins. Are any of the folks listed below still around?

 

[Copasetic]

I'm taking a break from this for the holiday weekend.

If you want to step up and answer the questions above, you can write here, in public for all of us to see or PM me - Warning - private message is rather sketch in forums if you have access to the DB.. it's not really intuitive but you can figure it out if you have access.

Basically if you were admin level, I need you to login an make some tweaks to the the software. I'm giving it to 9/5 at midnight. After that I will throw my own hashes in the DB and make the changes myself... I would rather leave some level of control in this and give opportunities for things to be deleted, etc. And lord help, me included -- there is enough drama in that DB .. yeah

All aside, I can see why Invision wanted to cut ppl off and lock them out of old code. They are good developers but they fail, very hard.. almost comedically at security... MD5 .. really? Granted, its not reversible but it is what I say the hash is. I really don't want to do that this these files.

 

[StormStalker]

Only one person that I recognize on that list is currently active on the forum, unless they are going by another username. That’s “Pastor”.

 

[Copasetic]

Maybe the Pastor will reach out.

This database as much as I cherish it, considering the loss and how I miss it and want to get this out in the world again for all of us to enjoy, its just a train wreck.

Not the content but the passwords and posts, etc. They had some half money maker attempt of being secure by taking form input like usernames/passwords and converting that to MD5 and comparing those strings.. so at no time what you type in is what its equal to clear text unless you catch it between the client and the server. MITM.. The excrementy part is that if a box is compromised you can capture that so easily and play those hashes against a common set of known hashes and get a majority of the logins. They are not even salted. All of the the private messages are clear text....

While trying to dig parts of backups and write those in to the DB, I see the clear text and.. lets just say that a lot of that needs to be private. Forever. And I'm sure as hell not going to divulge it. I ran a few very basic tools in Kali against the forum as it sits and was able to get four vulnerabilities, one that if I wanted to RCE a payload - I could - and if there was something else I could get lateral movement with post explotation - game over.

I can't make it public knowing that is ripe for the picking. So it needs to be upgraded which is fine, I will cover that cost but I need someone with admin on the forum to run the upgrade script against the DB in place. If no one wants to do that, or can't remember passwords I will convert a known string to MD5 and elevate my self as admin in the forum code and do what I need to do.

 

[thundersnow]

Something to mention, and maybe this is an elephant in the room, but I’ll say it anyway. I have this sense that the majority of the active forum members when the old forum crashed joined a new forum that someone took it on themselves to create while this forum was down. The forum is SouthernWx.com. It felt like an opportunistic move or maybe just the impatience that certain people couldn’t wait during the recovery attempt of old Talkweather. My memory of that time is that basically someone created SouthernWx and spread the word that hey, TW is dead, so join our new forum we’ve created. By the time the TW website name was transferred over to the new owner and this new version of Talkweather was stood up, a whole lot of people had moved over to SouthernWx and I think remain there to this day. And, a lot of those people never came back from what I can tell or at least never became active here again.

I also have an account at SouthernWx. What I soon realized is the majority of the most active posters on the old Talkweather were now posting at SouthernWx… same account names and everything for the most part. This new version of Talkweather has never come close to being as active as old Talkweather. And, that is mostly because so many jumped ship to that other forum…

 

[Mike S]

I have no idea what my password would have been for that site. I tend to keep my forum admin password separate from other passwords I might use, so unless it is written down somewhere I won't have a clue.

 

[WesL]

Hey @Copasetic,

Good to see you. I have a low-level project underway to use a dump from the Internet Archive to create an archive site. However, we would love to get the database dump to see if we can run the posts through an importer. However, we would not be able to restore accounts due to the ever-changing world of privacy laws and relationships with users.

I have to state that the archive site you mentioned, talkwxarchive.com, is not owned or operated by Social Data Group, and we assume no liability for it.

Thanks,
Wes

 

[Copasetic]

Something to mention, and maybe this is an elephant in the room, but I’ll say it anyway. I have this sense that the majority of the active forum members when the old forum crashed joined a new forum that someone took it on themselves to create while this forum was down. The forum is SouthernWx.com. It felt like an opportunistic move or maybe just the impatience that certain people couldn’t wait during the recovery attempt of old Talkweather. My memory of that time is that basically someone created SouthernWx and spread the word that hey, TW is dead, so join our new forum we’ve created. By the time the TW website name was transferred over to the new owner and this new version of Talkweather was stood up, a whole lot of people had moved over to SouthernWx and I think remain there to this day. And, a lot of those people never came back from what I can tell or at least never became active here again.

I also have an account at SouthernWx. What I soon realized is the majority of the most active posters on the old Talkweather were now posting at SouthernWx… same account names and everything for the most part. This new version of Talkweather has never come close to being as active as old Talkweather. And, that is mostly because so many jumped ship to that other forum…

Thank you for that information. I will do a little digging and see what I can find.

 

[Copasetic]

I have no idea what my password would have been for that site. I tend to keep my forum admin password separate from other passwords I might use, so unless it is written down somewhere I won't have a clue.

Thank you for the reply, sir. Would you even want to attempt to login to see if you could remember it? I know it's time out of your schedule that you likely don't have but it would be neat to try.

 

[Copasetic]

Hey @Copasetic,

Good to see you. I have a low-level project underway to use a dump from the Internet Archive to create an archive site. However, we would love to get the database dump to see if we can run the posts through an importer. However, we would not be able to restore accounts due to the ever-changing world of privacy laws and relationships with users.

I have to state that the archive site you mentioned, talkwxarchive.com, is not owned or operated by Social Data Group, and we assume no liability for it.

Thanks,
Wes

Hi Wes,

Nice to see you as well.

I thought about posting a backup of the DB for that purpose but it has so much in it other than just weather talk -- there is no way - I would without going through it from top to bottom and I'm not really there yet. Not to mention, I really don't want to see a lot of peoples personal business while deleting it.

I'm not against it but I would need to perform a lot of clean up. I just need to make a decision.

Regarding statements - about the archive site, for sure - that is me, all me and it would be made very clear that that there is no affiliation. Just like the content of these old DB's, while it would be public and the public can download all that they want for their personal enjoyment, reposting any content from the restored site will be strictly prohibited without prior agreement/licensing. I'm not kidding about that either.

-Brandon

 

[Copasetic]

Update.

Kind of stuck at the moment.

The reason is that as IPB released versions and the old forum was updated there were upgrades to the DB as well. Something simple like a adding a new table with one column between .01 and .05 makes newer software incompatible and the forum will not work. Remember the old database driver error?

IPB software had so many vulnerabilities with XSS, SQL Injections (not sanitizing client inputs), RCE via uploading to the forum, etc. they took all of the older versions offline and while you can find some they are nulled on shady sites and lord only knows what junk those folks put in to them so I'm not going to do that route either.

Even if an old version could be found, that will allow some functionality, the admin login will be needed to run the DB upgrade script. Same for if I moved it to hosted IPB..

There are a lot of parts of the DB after the current one that have data but it will need to be pulled in manually after a healthy upgrade. The largest sequential full backups that do not leave any gaps has the version at 3.0.5 - ancient .. just like the disastrously old 5.5 MySQL needed to handle the DB.. it uses so many deprecated commands, newer versions would not restore the file.



This leaves me with a few options..

1) Get lucky with an admin account, upgrade, clean up old non weather DB content and pay IPB for the latest and greatest software..
2) Brute force a known admin account and/or change the password of one do what needs to be done and pay IPB for the latest and greatest software.
3) Strip the non weather DB content out and build a new forum.
4) Strip the non weather DB content out and hand it over to someone.
5) Say I tried and let a sleeping dog lie and give it all a proper burial.

Right now, I'm hoping for option #1. Will consider option #2 and possibly #4.

Option #5 doesn't sound to bad either.

 

[Mike S]

Thank you for the reply, sir. Would you even want to attempt to login to see if you could remember it? I know it's time out of your schedule that you likely don't have but it would be neat to try.

The password I would have used would have been something I would never remember and I would keep written down. As soon as I was given access to the ACP I started using something similar to an auto-generated password.

 

[Copasetic]

The password I would have used would have been something I would never remember and I would keep written down. As soon as I was given access to the ACP I started using something similar to an auto-generated password.

And that is the smart thing to do!

I appreciate the consideration!

 

[maroonedinhsv]

Update.

Kind of stuck at the moment.

The reason is that as IPB released versions and the old forum was updated there were upgrades to the DB as well. Something simple like a adding a new table with one column between .01 and .05 makes newer software incompatible and the forum will not work. Remember the old database driver error?

IPB software had so many vulnerabilities with XSS, SQL Injections (not sanitizing client inputs), RCE via uploading to the forum, etc. they took all of the older versions offline and while you can find some they are nulled on shady sites and lord only knows what junk those folks put in to them so I'm not going to do that route either.

Even if an old version could be found, that will allow some functionality, the admin login will be needed to run the DB upgrade script. Same for if I moved it to hosted IPB..

There are a lot of parts of the DB after the current one that have data but it will need to be pulled in manually after a healthy upgrade. The largest sequential full backups that do not leave any gaps has the version at 3.0.5 - ancient .. just like the disastrously old 5.5 MySQL needed to handle the DB.. it uses so many deprecated commands, newer versions would not restore the file.

View attachment 21615

This leaves me with a few options..

1) Get lucky with an admin account, upgrade, clean up old non weather DB content and pay IPB for the latest and greatest software..
2) Brute force a known admin account and/or change the password of one do what needs to be done and pay IPB for the latest and greatest software.
3) Strip the non weather DB content out and build a new forum.
4) Strip the non weather DB content out and hand it over to someone.
5) Say I tried and let a sleeping dog lie and give it all a proper burial.

Right now, I'm hoping for option #1. Will consider option #2 and possibly #4.

Option #5 doesn't sound to bad either.

Go with #5. You didn't resurrect it when it died, no need to do it now.