prying1: Blogmad Exploits

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Blogmad Exploits

It seems that a few bugs in the Blogmad Blog Traffic Exchange system were able to be exploited. One of the members, Zero at Zerodaymoney.com, who volunteered to be a beta tester found the bugs, reported them and 3 months later saw they were still not fixed. The gentleman who found the problems then took it to a blogpost.

That got attention real quick.

One of the Blogmad Administrators - DocterMoo - left this comment on the blogpost:
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Hi,

We have patched the bugs that you have brought to attention. Unfortunately other people have tried to implement your banner hack with little success and are ruining the BlogMad surfbar experience.

If you find anything else in the future, you now have my personal email address - let me know and I will take care of it as quickly as I can.

Thanks
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Apparently some unscrupulous blog surfers tried the hacks/exploits. I for one hope they were bumped off Blogmad as punishment.

Now as you surf Blogmad you will see a little popup window letting you know that changing the Blogmad code will no longer work.

I also see it when my blogsite page is loaded.

It is a bit annoying but I don't think it will be up forever. At least I hope not.

Well, Zero Day Money has been punished by being banned from the shoutbox.

Zero's newest post says, -
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1. An angry camper mod named Lydia has banned me from the shoutbox, when I posted the exploit (because she deemed it as spam) instead of someone trying to help.

2. They have asked me not to post these exploits and instead Email them. Hrmmmm thats kinda ironic considering that what I originally did. So I propose a kind of truce, I will stop publicly posting these exploits when I am become no longer banned on the shoutbox.

3. They have claimed to have fixed these exploits. - - - This one is only partially true...
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prying1 sez: Perhaps Zero should have tried a bit harder to get the attention of the Blogmad administrators prior to posting the exploits but one thing for sure the administrators are now really paying attention.

I think that the administrators should give an attaboy and bigger thanks to Zero and at the same time go through their records and find those who cheated on a regular basis.

Those who cheated should be set back to a reasonable level or booted from the program.

Openness on the part of the Blogmad team is a must. In order to continue having the trust of those loyal and honest members the Blogmad people should start an open dialog with members to see what the members think should be done to the cheaters.

People stealing credits takes away from the good honest folks having their turn at bat. I love Blogmad and plan on continuing to use it because it is a good clean program and I've made quite a few friends and enemies from it. I'm glad Zero posted the exploits. I hope he is quickly given the shoutbox privileges back. Perhaps he will take down the two exploit posts and his working relationship with the Blogmad administrators will take on a new and friendly life.

Thanks Zero - Thanks DocterMoo - and I hope the problems are quickly and easily worked out.

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For those blogsurfers who have not tried Blogmad I would suggest you do so. Easy to set up. Great bunch of members and you WILL draw new people to your site.