Webmasters need to be cautious!

[Michael Guilfoyle-m6.net]

A NEW internet worm has launched a Google-powered assault on web bulletin boards that use the popular phpBB forum software.

Dubbed "Perl.Santy.A", or "Santy", the worm attacks web servers rather than desktop PCs, a warning posted online by Finnish internet security company F-Secure said.
The worm uses Google to search randomly for new hosts, F-Secure said.

There have been serious vulnerabilities found in the phpBB software in the past and this incident underlines the importance of all people keeping up to date with the latest security patches and fixes," anti-virus firm Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said

For more details read http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,11759816%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

[edit]just make a link in the post clickable.[/edit]

[SensoVision]

thanks Prianka! Hopefully it would help someone to avoid defacing and upgrade script before it happens.
BTW Heidi also post warning about this worm here:
http://forum.weblamp.net/index.php?topic=3553.0

[spherica]

Here is the actual fix to stop this worm, you really should upgrade to phpbb version 2.0.11, but if you can't figure it out, at the VERY LEAST, make this change

Open viewtopic.php in any text editor. (I use TextPad, its free for trial)

//
// Was a highlight request part of the URI?
//
$highlight_match = $highlight = '';
if (isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['highlight']))
{
   // Split words and phrases
   $words = explode(' ', trim(htmlspecialchars(urldecode($HTTP_GET_VARS['highlight']))));

   for($i = 0; $i < sizeof($words); $i++)
   {
 

and replace with:

//
// Was a highlight request part of the URI?
//
$highlight_match = $highlight = '';
if (isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['highlight']))
{
   // Split words and phrases
   $words = explode(' ', trim(htmlspecialchars($HTTP_GET_VARS['highlight'])));

   for($i = 0; $i < sizeof($words); $i++)
   {