PHPBB started spamming users by repeated topic/new PM notiffications

postcd · Post by **postcd** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:05 am

Hello,

i see that my PHPBB 3.0.8 started sending e-mail reminders non stop. I mean one reminder is sent to the users infinitely. When i checked todays log of the mail server, i found 7 users be affected and they receive approximately 67 same e-mails per day. I want to ask what should i try and what to check?

When i checked the user that is bombarded by topic reply notifications if he is subscribed to the topic, i found when editting his post he is not subscribed to be notified.
That is strange, i checked system mail account and found one user e-mails are bouncing and when i clicked in some bounced e-mail an unsubscribe link phpbb said: "Při odhlašování od odběru novinek se objevila chyba." (which means in english that there was an error unsubscribing from the topic reply notifications)

But ut is not just topic problem, one user reported this issue to me stating she receive repeated New PM notifications and i verified that it is like that:
2016-11-23 23:49:21 1c9hI1-0000B7-4e <= [email protected] U=username P=local S=1176 id=[email protected] T="Nov\341 soukrom\341 zpr\341va" for [email protected]

Nov\341 soukrom\341 zpr\341va -> New personal message

Thank you

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:13 am

if you made no changes to the files/database then ask your host what they changed on the server.

robert

postcd · Post by **postcd** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:37 am

I am not sure how this can be related to the server. How can it generate same e-mails and send it repeatedly..
Mail queue is empty. I would think that PHPBB have to initiate e-mail sending and i do not remember i changed it. PS: i manage the server.

update: when i limitted mails per hour on that hosting account, some of these e-mails stuck in queue and i see these e-mails have this line i headers: Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:26:45
somewhere around this time +/- 1 hour maybe (couple of days back)
X-PHP-Script: myphpbbdomain.com/cron.php for IPHere
From where these e-mails appearing with this old date?

postcd · Post by **postcd** » Mon Nov 28, 2016 8:25 pm

Issue still there. PHPBB is buggy and sends out repeated notiffications. cron.php script is sending it.

AmigoJack · Post by **AmigoJack** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:33 am

postcd wrote:cron.php script is sending it

And you are sure about this, because you removed/renamed this file and then no e-mails were sent anymore?

Post by **Brf** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:16 pm

If this is a phpBB 3.0 board, the Emails would be in queue.php

postcd · Post by **postcd** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:38 pm

- As you suggested, i tried to rename cron.php to cron2.phpp and those e-mails stopped, but ofcourse i need mailing functionality so i renamed it back.

- It is PHPBB v3.0.8. There is no queue.php file in root directory BUT WOW!!!!, it is there: /cache/queue.php

And this file contains that crappy e-mails that are being sent over and over again.....

I have some PHPBB files set to be unchangeable (immutable bit), but cache folder and its files/subfolders is excluded. These are ony ones that are changeable:
-------------e- ./sitemap.html
-------------e- ./store
----------I--e- ./cache
-------------e- ./cron.php (was immutable too before i renamed it as suggested)
----------I--e- ./files
-------------e- ./robots.txt

What seemingly fixed the issue described in this topic is to empty file /cache/queue.php
Once i emptied it, e-mails stopped (cron.php have to exist of course, so topic reply notifications etc. works)
Then i created new topic and replied to it as another user and i instantly received topic reply notification and received it only one time, no excessive. so i hope issue is solved, though i am not sure how this issue happend.