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Cherry Blossoms

April 06, 2008 at 03:45 PM | categories: travel

I was in Washington DC for the occasion of O. Eric's 40th birthday, which entailed excellent wine and a good time all around. Along the way, we dropped by the cherry blossom festival.

Washington Monument cherry blossoms

 

Meet me in Stockholm - for a pillow fight?

March 23, 2008 at 03:52 PM | categories: travel

It's a good thing I packed winter clothes: rumors of Stockholm's early Spring are much exaggerated. But at least there's Dilmah.



Throughout the week leading up to Easter, the weather was mercurial. The thermometer never dipped much below freezing, but there was enough wind-chill to cut through several layers of clothing.



The weekend in Stockholm was interesting. I went to the historic museum, the national museum, and... a pillow fight outside the central train station.



On the way back to Frankfurt, my Lufthansa flight was designated "City of Würzburg" - nice!

 

Bamberg

March 15, 2008 at 05:12 PM | categories: travel, beer

"Oh, you like beer and you've been to Germany? Did you visit Bamberg?" Fine - it's only an hour from Würzburg; I'll go.



It was worth the trip.

 

Glasgow

February 22, 2008 at 08:54 AM | categories: travel, UK

I get it - Roland Butter!

 

XMLRPC, eh?

January 30, 2008 at 12:00 AM | categories: home

Today I noticed some link-spam and wp-stats iframes in my last three posts. After removing the symptoms, I went looking for the culprit. I suspect that there's a flaw in xmlrpc.php, and that's how my site was compromised.

219.204.252.200 - - [25/Jan/2008:07:11:30 -0800] "POST /wordpress/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.0" 200 2736 "-" "Opera/9.01 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)" 62.65.159.182 - - [25/Jan/2008:07:12:37 -0800] "POST /wordpress/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.0" 200 163 "-" "Opera/9.01 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)" 222.122.148.83 - - [28/Jan/2008:08:25:55 -0800] "POST /wordpress/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.0" 200 3042 "-" "Opera/9.01 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)" 121.144.82.209 - - [28/Jan/2008:08:26:44 -0800] "POST /wordpress/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.0" 200 163 "-" "Opera/9.01 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)" 201.0.51.181 - - [28/Jan/2008:08:27:43 -0800] "POST /wordpress/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.0" 200 163 "-" "Opera/9.01 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)" 222.122.148.83 - - [28/Jan/2008:08:25:55 -0800] "POST /wordpress/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.0" 200 3042 "-" "Opera/9.01 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)" 121.144.82.209 - - [28/Jan/2008:08:26:44 -0800] "POST /wordpress/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.0" 200 163 "-" "Opera/9.01 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)" 201.0.51.181 - - [28/Jan/2008:08:27:43 -0800] "POST /wordpress/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.0" 200 163 "-" "Opera/9.01 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)"

POSTs to xmlrpc.php seem like an odd thing, especially since these IPs are nothing special.

Name: softbank219204252200.bbtec.net Address: 219.204.252.200 62.65.159.182 does not exist (Authoritative answer) 222.122.148.83 does not exist (Authoritative answer) 121.144.82.209 does not exist (Authoritative answer) Name: 201-0-51-181.dsl.telesp.net.br Address: 201.0.51.181 222.122.148.83 does not exist (Authoritative answer) 121.144.82.209 does not exist (Authoritative answer) Name: 201-0-51-181.dsl.telesp.net.br Address: 201.0.51.181

For the moment, I've disabled xmlrpc.php entirely. Let's hope that fixes the problem.