Hostgator STAY AWAY

[stonecold]

The way support has handled this whole russian script kiddie attacking php sites has proven to me that host gator is not worth the hassle of keeping.

Originally Posted by stonecold

The way support has handled this whole russian script kiddie attacking php sites has proven to me that host gator is not worth the hassle of keeping.

While investigating the issue at hand, I saw the trouble ticket that is currently pending for the site restore. On the other points, we were not hacked. It was the files and directories under your public_html that were set with insecure permissions and were vulnerable for attack.

Please do not blame us when the folders owned by you were not secured as you're responsible for your own scripts.

This would be the same as buying a million-dollar safe, not shutting the vault/lock, and calling the manufacturer to complain about someone breaking into the safe for your own incompetence of not shutting it.

We explained this to you over the phone.

Since this issue was not at the direct fault, we have modified this to be a positive review since we were able to tell you what was wrong that resulted in you being hacked.

Thanks for choosing Hostgator, have a great day!

[stonecold]

First I dont like the fact that Hostgator staff decided to take it on there own to change my negative comment.

As Daniel so politely put it. Check your scripts. Well here is a funny thing I have been going around and found out that it was mentioned here and later mentioned on other webhost forums about fanstatico installing applications with insecure premissions aka ( some folders recieving 777 permissions). Fanstatico installs are not osupported or some bs like that they are just there for people. But here is where I have the issue apparently on Jan 13 this little russian script kiddie hit mazda with 404 wanabe fowarding hack. Going in and corrupting files . Ok I have a problem as Hostgator should of notified all customers of the attacked and I would not be here complaining about it. Sorry but I get email from other webhost any time there is any kind of script kiddie/hacker attack on one of boxes, why so I can prepare and make sure I am current with my patches and I dont have any thing marked 777. Personally if hostgator gave a damn about there customers they would of sent out a email on the 13 so on the 14 when the script kiddie hit gator21 it would not had mattered as i would had seen fanstatico had maked some folders with 777, I could of then locked down those permissions and kept my self from having to write this long drawn out post. Side note Mambo had all it security patches applied, so did Open Realty 1.5... So I dont want to hear about unpatched php scripts.

What I have a serious problem is Hostgator going in and changing my negative comment. Personally I do people should stay way as any company where they dont treat you like there one and only customer esspecially in a time of need you simply dont want to be with. There is a number of Hostgator resellers on this board that I am sure would give you proper support when needed. There are a number of other hosts out there that belive in personalized support but I wont named those as this is neither the place or time.


So quick recap
Hostgator knew of a security problem on the 13, some script kiddie attacking insecure folders. Then failed to notify there customers about it so they can secure there scripts and folders..

Hostgator, if you change this one you will get a BBB complaint and then have to deal with me in person.

I'm very sorry to hear about your troubles. We're working very hard on patching up the Mambo problems. This isn't a HostGator problem it is actually happening to everyone. The Planet is also experiancing problems with their Tipping Point System and they're currently working hard to get it back to normal.

If you can supply me with a ticket number I can personally resolve any issues you may be having so we can get this matter handled.

Regards,
Ben Gabler
Systems Administrator & Level III Support,

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[stonecold]

Ben I already taken care of the issue my self. I deleted everything and upgrade the databases as needed.

Mambo 4.5.2 to Joomla 1.0.7 ( released yesterday)

I altered some scripts in open realty to prevent corruption of the image folder.

Bottom line is I am moving to a host that I dont get tossed around. Sorry I dont like that fact that one message is from you the next is from andrew and then sam then who ever else. Also personally I dont like brents attitude.

At my earliest convience I will be leaving Hostgator since my preffered host is now taking customers again and have a better ticketing system where I deal with the same person through out the issue. Also provides Postgres and Ruby on Rails. Not that I wild about ruby on rails, but there are applications that I wrote for postgres that simply do not work well in a mysql 4 enviroment. Mysql 5 is bareable but still not production ready....

I am personally disgusted that this happened on the Jan 13 and hostgator did nothing to inform customers, then Jan 16 more people were hit with this russian script kiddie, (me being one of them) and for all i know this bozo could still be floating around. there is really nothing that would make me change my mind. I personally do not like the way it was handled and decided that customer service is worth more then the price I pay for hosting.

Hello,

A quick couple of notes;

We have many on staff and if you were to wait for the same person to help you in each reply, the wait could be very long, or worse, if they are off shift, a day or more. If you aren't getting a resolution to the an issue, you can have your ticket escalated and we'll look into why it wasn't handled properly or efficiently enough.

Second, I can understand that you wanted an email, but this basically happened the same day you noticed, within hours, and we were busy fixing and cleaning what we could find for any world open directories/files being affected. If we emailed every client without knowing if they were even affected, we'd have created a problem and a lot of confusion.

We certainly don't intend to wait for clients to contact us about a problem, but while locating any accounts that were affected and formulating a plan of action to fix and prevent a repeated incident, any such notice would not apply to every client on the server, or likely even most, so between the time this happened and when we could have notified you, you had already contacted us. I apologize if that lead you to believe that we take such matters lightly or don't care about your site--we do.

[stonecold]

Well when I have Ben tell me well we are seeing problems and we know about this script kiddie. And we will get a handle on it.

Then I get from another person well it your fault. Even though I kept up to date with my security patches. And then I had them blaming the poor security on me when I had no idea that fanstatico chmods 777 some file and folders.

Also on the point of restoring form a backup. Perosnally if I am going to pay 15 dollars for some one to restore my files from the backup I dont have a problem.

But when I first get well click the link and fill out the form and we will get right on it.

Turns into 6 to 12 hours according to the screen I read when hitting submit .

To a support person telling me 24 to 48 hours in chat I take offense especially 24 to 48 hours.

6 to 12 is pretty bad too. I would not complain if I was not paying for it, but the minute you put a montary value I expect it to be done in a reasonable time frame.

then getting stupid support emails that state I should lock down my scripts before restoring ( huh ) if I restore it going to over right the files in the directory. Hence the reason while I rather wait till the next business day to get the same person who already knows what the heck is going on then to get someone who is catching bits and pieces and makes me repeat the whole thing all over. That is just frustation I can do with out.

I have been a customer for a while and ignored this kinds of post but it seems evident that when push comes to shove hostgator just not do well when there is a serious issue at hand.