I got asked if I would be interested in taking over some duties with updating information on a small website from time to time, creating new pages for events, etc. as the last volunteer hasn't done anything since July. It's a word press site and it's somewhat of a mess. There were broken links all over the place either from someone moving files or just outdated. The design is also a hot mess. So I got login details from someone else's account to start with which is a huge red flag and I spent some time fixing broken links and recovering missing PDF files from Internet archive. I fixed some things with contact emails and dates being incorrect, etc. Then the next day I noticed that the original guy is in there making edits and new pages, which have broken links and look horrible like he never checked his work. I also realized that the account I have has no access to create new elements on a page I can only edit things like text, links, and images within existing elements. So now I'm in an awkward situation where it looks like the last guy caught wind of someone new helping out and decided to now get involved again. If I'm going to have my name on this thing I don't want it to look like shit the way it does now, but I already committed. I haven't talked to anybody about it yet, so hopefully it becomes a graceful handover or they take responsibility back so I don't have anything to do with it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 5 points 1 day ago (1 child)

They are probably vulnerable to the php exploit that was discovered recently. Tell them they need to hire someone to fix it before it starts serving malware to their constituency

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 day ago

    I was going to bring this up as well. I can't see which version of WordPress they're running from the account I have access to. I also can't see which plugins are installed. I can guess there's too many installed though. I also need to find out who the admin actually is so that I can get my own account and they need to have a talk about account sharing. At least someone at some point knew what permissions are, which is good I guess. I also have no idea where or how the site is being hosted. Someone has access to the host because some of the links on the site are from different directories than the standard wp-content folder you use in word press. In fact this could also be a nightmare depending on how they are storing files and using permissions. This is really a can of worms, oh bother.

  • source
  • parent