[Discussioni] Main AGNULA host back online after attack

[The AGNULA Project]

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     [Sorry for cross-posting.  Feel free to forward around]

Florence, 28 April 2005

+++ Main AGNULA host back online after attack

After the attack (and potential compromise)  that the AGNULA main host
(agnula.speech.kth.se) suffered  from in  the past  days  [0], we  are
happy  to announce that we concluded  the reinstallation process.  All
the services provided by  the host have been restored  and are, to the
best of our knowledge, fully functional.

+++

After the attack (and potential compromise)  that the AGNULA main host
(agnula.speech.kth.se) suffered  from in  the past  days  [0], we  are
happy  to announce that we concluded  the reinstallation process.  All
the services provided by  the host have been restored  and are, to the
best of our knowledge, fully functional.

On Sunday, April 16  2005, the main AGNULA host (agnula.speech.kth.se,
hosting      lists.agnula.org,  www.agnula.org,   download.agnula.org,
devel.agnula.org,  muzik.agnula.org  and related services) was subject
to an attack (see below).  The attacker(s)  (whose identity is unknown
as of  today)  managed  to  download, *but  not   succesfully run*,  a
backdoor  on the system;   thanks    to the tight  security   measures
implemented on the  host  - and after   a thorough check of  the whole
system  - we  had  reasons  to believe   that   the latter  was  *not*
compromised.

However, following good security practices and  common sense, we could
not guarantee the integrity of the host.  Since we had already planned
an  extensive upgrade of  the server, we  decided to go down the safer
route: completely  wipe out   the  system, reinstall  everything  from
scratch   and recover backup data   from the day  before the attempted
compromise.

The reinstallation  process has now come  to an end.  All the services
should be back online as you  read this e-mail (actually, they started
to  come back before this  announcement, but we  preferred  to do some
checks in advance).

Please feel free to  contact <info a agnula.org>, should you notice  any
problem.


+++

About  AGNULA:  Agnula (acronym  for   A GNU/Linux Audio distribution,
pronounced  with a strong  g)  is the name  of  a project funded until
April   2004 by  the  European    Commission  (number of     contract:
IST-2001-34879; key action IV.3.3, Free Software: towards the critical
mass).  After the end  of the funded  period, AGNULA is continuing its
work, aiming to spread Libre Software  in the professional audio/video
arena.

Big thanks to the following institutions for their help in supporting
AGNULA:

- Firenze Tecnologia <http://www.firenzetecnologia.it>

  for paying Free Ekanayaka to work full-time on maintaining A/DeMuDi;

- KTH Department of Speech, Music and Hearing <http://www.speech.kth.se/> 

  for housing and supporting the main AGNULA server

- IRCAM <http://www.ircam.fr> and CCRMA <http://ccrma.stanford.edu/>

  for providing mirror space and bandwidth

- Red Hat France <http://www.redhat.fr/>

  for supporting the A/RehMuDi distribution

Best regards,

--
The AGNULA Team                                   info a agnula.org        
Our mailing lists:                        http://lists.agnula.org/
Our web site:                               http://www.agnula.org/
"There's no free expression without control on the tools you use"

[0] http://lists.agnula.org/pipermail/announce/2005-April/000089.html