Question Are Forum Mailboxes Safe?

michael diemer

Honorable
Feb 2, 2013
22
0
10,560
I'm on a bunch of forums, and occasionally someone PM's me. I'm just wondering if there could be a security risk in answering a private message on a forum? Could it somehow be a back door to your computer?

I ask this because once I was on a forum, and while there my computer got hacked. It was on a BSD system, and someone actually had opened up a terminal and was attempting to chroot right into my system, typing stuff right before my eyes. Of course I shut the computer down immediately and over-write the drive with a different system. It is now not in my computer, and I am hesitant to put it back in.

I don't know how the person gained access to my system. The forum in question uses the flash player to play music files. I was signed in. I have no idea what created the vulnerability. But I won't use that operating systems again, and I have uninstalled flash on all my systems. Now, when I get a PM from someone I don't know, unless it's from admin, I get nervous and hesitate to answer it. Should I be?
 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
PMs are much like emails and could, theoretically, carry the same risks. Links and linked content (if allowed) could certainly pose a threat.

Also, if your IP address is exposed (some sites do this), a knucklehead could use that info to attempt to gain access to your system.

What specific forum were you on when the incident you described occur?
 

michael diemer

Honorable
Feb 2, 2013
22
0
10,560
Sorry, I lost track of this thread, thanks for your answer, COLGeek. It was Composers Forum, on ning.com. Not exactly a hotbed of hackers, I wouldn't think. But you never know. It's always possible to make enemies and not even realize it. And of course there are crazies everywhere, even on classical music forums.