EMERGENCY - need to secure my server against an ongoing SPAMMER

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005, Bob Brennan wrote:

> My remaining problems are:
> 1) how to open up *safe* relays for legitimate users, the preferred
> method being pop-b4-smtp because it is widely supported.
> 2) how to get mysql up and running again. The log-reported missing was
> in fact there and valid, even when replaced by a backup. I am
> currently trying uninstalls and reinstalls but not having a lot of
> luck. Most of my sites are dynamic and heavily rely on MySql.

I recall that the problem you reported was that, when you typed "service 
mysqld start", you got a message about "Timeout error...".  When this 
happens, what does "service mysqld status" report?

Depending on what you've done to your configuration, this may not mean
that mysqld actually failed.  What failed is a little piece of the 
startup script that pings the server until it comes up:

 	/usr/bin/mysqladmin -uUNKNOWN_MYSQL_USER ping

The failure message occurs if the ping fails after 10 tries (1/sec).

The initial mysql database installed with the mysql-server RPM has two 
users defined.  One is "root" and the other is "".  If you removed "" or 
set a password for it, then the ping will fail and you'll get the message, 
even if if the server started successfully.

I'm no MySQL expert, but if you are concerned about a user with no 
password, I'll just note that that user also has no privileges.

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs