I think I was hacked

[tuddy24]

Hi all,

The title says it all. I think there might be a hole somewhere in Pidgin or somewhere. Let me explain the chain of events.

I wake up to find my screensaver frozen. Nothing let's me get out of it, three finger salute, CTL-ALT-BACKSPACE, nothing.

I physically reset the pc, jump in the shower, and come back to find that the pc is at some command prompt for some sound config. I wish I would've jotted it down but didn't.

Three finger salute works here and I watch the boot process to see what's going on. I boot ok into gnome and everythings ok. I open Pidgin which I always leave running and see someone on my buddy list that I did not invite. I delete him immediately and quit Pidgin. I've had people trying to buddy me before but I was able to deny them. Is it possible that somehow this person took over my system in some way? I never log in as root or anything, I sudo whenever I install something and that's it.

Concerned,

Pete

[hyper_ch]

I don't think you were hacked - it rather sounds a problem with pidgin

[Dr Small]

I agree with hyper_ch.

[patrickballeux]

Hi tuddy24,

You lock-up could be caused by several things (last update could have changed something in your graphic card driver...).

I would suspect your 3d card and your screensaver to be the cause. But to be on the safe side, stop your pidgin, and let the computer opened for a whole day.

If it locks again, the you know it is not pidgin.

Also, have a look at your log files in /var/log/". I was hacked one day on my ftp server (I had forgot to change the password to something more complex than "admin/admin"...) These logs can be useful to detect unwanted login (of sudo retry...)

Do you have an ATI card? I have a glitch with OpenGL screesavers with my ATI x1200, so I simply select the "blank" screensaver to avoid any problem.

Let me know!

[Drezard]

Sounds like you should wipe the computer! Put it back in the box! and send it back to the manufacturer!

[tuddy24]

Hi patrickballeux,

The problem seemed to be my graphics card. While doing stuff inside windows the PC locked up in a similar way that happened in Ubuntu. I pulled the card out and cleaned a ton of dust off of it and put it back in. Who knows maybe there was a bad connection or something. I do know that my idle GPU temp dropped form 50 to 42C just from cleaning it. The only problem was all the lockups tore up my Ubuntu install and I had to reinstall it. I kept getting an error when booting that said my ext3 partition had errors that were not fixable. Once I got it reinstalled however it's worked without a hitch. I have heard that it's a good idea to seperate the ext3 partitions for this reason but am not sure which folders should have their own partition. I split my ext3 up into / and /home this time. Thanks for your help I appreciate it.

Pete

[patrickballeux]

Yep, overheating can cause this kind of trouble. And the fact that you saw a temperature drop indicated that while doing some screensaver opengl activity, you was probably burning hot.

And when it's hot, it freezes... it's a known fact in computer land :)

Make sure also that there is a good ventilation in your PC (Have a look at your power supply also...)

Have a nice day!

[airtonix]

you would be surprised at how well a millimetre of dust can prevent heat from disipating from your chips.

[daleus]

Sounds like you should wipe the computer! Put it back in the box! and send it back to the manufacturer!

Ding Ding, here comes the ban-mobile.

[pmlxuser]

sounds like you should wipe the computer! Put it back in the box! And send it back to the manufacturer!

bad advise!!!!

[emecas]

HI all...

i don't know in what way "see someone on my buddy list that I did not invite" can be related with the graphic card or the chip set

I have experimented a similar situation some time ago in my accounts that i have used with pidgin ... I received messages from a unauthorized contact and I saw a contact that I did not accept in my contacts list.

if someone have a idea, i would like retake this part of tuddy24's post


thanks

[Dr Small]

HI all...

i don't know in what way "see someone on my buddy list that I did not invite" can be related with the graphic card or the chip set

I have experimented a similar situation some time ago in my accounts that i have used with pidgin ... I received messages from a unauthorized contact and I saw a contact that I did not accept in my contacts list.

if someone have a idea, i would like retake this part of tuddy24's post


thanks
That sounds like Instant Message Spam:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=943616

[Kevbert]

Regarding dust - as well as overheating components, it can cause fan wear and can even be conductive. It's worth carefully giving the computer an internal clean once in a while with a vacuum cleaner.