16 ms·

Why you can't search for phpBB on Bing

149 points by chaosmachine 15y ago

glimcat 15y ago
If it's an automated system inducing the error state, it suggests that you could poison Bing by creating a similar error for popular keywords.
powertower 15y ago
Every single one of his search examples "that breaks Bing" works for me just fine. Either Bing fixed this the same hour his blog post was made, or he just ran into a temporary snag. And his Google search of the error code on Bing is just that, a snapshot of a temporary error that has no correlation to any particular keyword in the url.
- chaosmachine 15y ago
  I'd be interested in which browser you're using, and if you could check with a different one. I mention in the article that some browsers seem to be redirected before the bot filter kicks in (IE9, for example, but not IE8). You can see the results of the bug on about 50 browsers here: http://browsershots.org/http://www.bing.com/explore?q=topic+view http://browsershots.org/http://www.bing.com/explore?q=topic+...
  - cbr 15y ago
    I get the crash in safari on osx but not firefox or chrome
  - akarambir 15y ago
    Keeping these query things aside, Bing is not even loading in Opera mini 6 !
  - matmann2001 15y ago
    Works fine in Opera!
  - timtadh 15y ago
    It seems to be related to whether or not you have a bing cookie in your browser or not. I can turn on private browsing have them fail, then use a session with a bing cookie and have them succeed.
- Macha 15y ago
  They all consistently fail for me, Firefox 5 on Linux.
  - reinhardt 15y ago
    Ditto; same with Chrome, wget and curl.
- jonknee 15y ago
  No dice for me with Chrome on a Mac.
- city41 15y ago
  The "what topics do they discuss on the view?" search initially failed for me. So I went directly to Bing and typed it in manually and it worked from there on out, even going back and clicking the link in the article.
- fhars 15y ago
  Bing seems to do refer[r]er and/or cookie checking. If I enter the search on www.bing.com or have a cookie from bing, a search for phpbb produces results, if I clear all all bing cookies and enter http://www.bing.com/search?q=phpbb http://www.bing.com/search?q=phpbb in the location bar, I get the error.
  - benologist 15y ago
    Same for me.
    - lukesandberg 15y ago
      browsing in an incognito window should reproduce the error.
      - damusnet 15y ago
        it does
  - nikcub 15y ago
    an unsophisticated fix for an unsophisticated exploit if the exploit supported cookies and could mimic IE it would bypass this form of blocking
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
  - glimcat 15y ago
    That link works for me (or rather, dies and gives an error). By way of giving multiple data points.
  - jimbobimbo 15y ago
    This. Clean history - Bing spits an error, visit bing.com, then search - everything's fine.
JonoW 15y ago
All the examples mentioned worked fine for me (on FF5, Chrome + IE9 on Windows 7). Weird...
- sorbus 15y ago
  None of them work for me on Windows 7 / Chrome. My computer is being sent to 96.17.148.105 or .120 when I ping www.bing.com (pinging bing.com goes to 65.55.175.254, which times out), in case that's useful to anyone - since this is only happening to some people, it could be an issue which isn't present on all of Bing's servers.
  - JonoW 15y ago
    Got it to break; someone else here mentioned that when they cleared all bing.com cookies it generated the error - I got the same when I did that...
- PooBakery 15y ago
  Try to open them in an incognito window on chrome. That way the error shows up for me.
mackie 15y ago
Either that – or Bing itself is getting blocked from spidering Google on these queries ;)
bingaling 15y ago
For me, bing only produces errors if you don't have any bing cookies initialized. A presumption that bots wouldn't store+return cookies?
- est 15y ago
  I tried 1. visit www.bing.com first 2. search for few random words 3. search those URLs OP mentioned 4. They all works now. Looks like a bug how Bing handles cookies.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jrussbowman 15y ago
Works fine for me on the mobile site. Also the api returns results http://www.unscatter.com/search/?q=Phpbb+%2Fbing http://www.unscatter.com/search/?q=Phpbb+%2Fbing
1880 15y ago
> phpBB has a pretty bad security record Not exactly true. phpBB2 has a bad security record. phpBB3 has been clean since day 1, IIRC.
- ckwalsh 15y ago
  I work with phpBB, and felt a little awkward stepping forth and saying this, so I'm glad somebody did. phpBB3 has had a couple tiny problems, but nothing that could be used to attack users of a site or propagate an issue.
  - calloc 15y ago
    And still many people will refuse to use phpBB or have anything to do with it because of its checkered past.
    - drivebyacct2 15y ago
      I won't use phpbb or vbulletin or any of them because they feel cludgy. I don't want signatures. Two lines of text shouldn't occupy 500 pixels on my screen. And conversations among tons of people don't make sense when displayed at one hierarchy. Reddit and HN have spoiled me, any sort of unmoderated single-hierarchy forum is a chore anymore.
      - streptomycin 15y ago
        I'm out of the loop I suppose... what software would you use for, say, a support forum or something? I still use phpBB, and it works, but I agree it feels cludgy.
        StavrosK 15y ago
        I'd use the reddit/HN codebase, or a reddit/HN clone.
        jordanlev 15y ago
        You might like Vanilla Forums better: http://vanillaforums.org/ http://vanillaforums.org/
ahmetalpbalkan 15y ago
http://www.bing.com/search?q=topic+view http://www.bing.com/search?q=topic+view works very well on me.
- divtxt 15y ago
  For me just now: Ref A: 1868CAC6D8EA4D63B186C4E1C09E8822 Ref B: 22A00154B361421B403038C5A5D4A80F Ref C: Mon Aug 01 17:20:45 2011 PST Edit: this is under Chrome incognito mode as others have mentioned
  - walrus 15y ago
    Same for me (different numbers, though). I'm not surprised, though—I'm on an EC2 VPN, which some internet services are somewhat biased against (notably Stack Overflow).
mmuro 15y ago
Can't say I've ever been to Bing on this computer, but clicking on the links gives me the error. However, after visiting Bing.com and then clicking on the links, they work.
bbg 15y ago
I started using Bing recently and I noticed that I was getting error pages intermittently, and then pretty frequently. phpbb and topic view are returning error pages for me (on latest ff, cookies enabled). Another way I'm reliably getting an error page is adding parameter &first=201, e.g. http://www.bing.com/search?q=stuff&first=201 http://www.bing.com/search?q=stuff&first=201 This is the paging parameter, indicating you're at the 20th screen of results.
Torn 15y ago
Problem still occurs for me when clicking his links - no bing cookies here as I don't use it.
Kivett 15y ago
They didn't fix sh*t. It's still doing the same thing for me.

149 points by chaosmachine 15y ago

If it's an automated system inducing the error state, it suggests that you could poison Bing by creating a similar error for popular keywords.

powertower 15y ago

Every single one of his search examples "that breaks Bing" works for me just fine. Either Bing fixed this the same hour his blog post was made, or he just ran into a temporary snag. And his Google search of the error code on Bing is just that, a snapshot of a temporary error that has no correlation to any particular keyword in the url.

chaosmachine 15y ago
I'd be interested in which browser you're using, and if you could check with a different one. I mention in the article that some browsers seem to be redirected before the bot filter kicks in (IE9, for example, but not IE8). You can see the results of the bug on about 50 browsers here: http://browsershots.org/http://www.bing.com/explore?q=topic+view http://browsershots.org/http://www.bing.com/explore?q=topic+...
- cbr 15y ago
  I get the crash in safari on osx but not firefox or chrome
- akarambir 15y ago
  Keeping these query things aside, Bing is not even loading in Opera mini 6 !
- matmann2001 15y ago
  Works fine in Opera!
- timtadh 15y ago
  It seems to be related to whether or not you have a bing cookie in your browser or not. I can turn on private browsing have them fail, then use a session with a bing cookie and have them succeed.
Macha 15y ago
They all consistently fail for me, Firefox 5 on Linux.
- reinhardt 15y ago
  Ditto; same with Chrome, wget and curl.
jonknee 15y ago
No dice for me with Chrome on a Mac.
city41 15y ago
The "what topics do they discuss on the view?" search initially failed for me. So I went directly to Bing and typed it in manually and it worked from there on out, even going back and clicking the link in the article.
fhars 15y ago
Bing seems to do refer[r]er and/or cookie checking. If I enter the search on www.bing.com or have a cookie from bing, a search for phpbb produces results, if I clear all all bing cookies and enter http://www.bing.com/search?q=phpbb http://www.bing.com/search?q=phpbb in the location bar, I get the error.
- benologist 15y ago
  Same for me.
  - lukesandberg 15y ago
    browsing in an incognito window should reproduce the error.
    - damusnet 15y ago
      it does
- nikcub 15y ago
  an unsophisticated fix for an unsophisticated exploit if the exploit supported cookies and could mimic IE it would bypass this form of blocking
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- glimcat 15y ago
  That link works for me (or rather, dies and gives an error). By way of giving multiple data points.
- jimbobimbo 15y ago
  This. Clean history - Bing spits an error, visit bing.com, then search - everything's fine.

JonoW 15y ago

All the examples mentioned worked fine for me (on FF5, Chrome + IE9 on Windows 7). Weird...

sorbus 15y ago
None of them work for me on Windows 7 / Chrome. My computer is being sent to 96.17.148.105 or .120 when I ping www.bing.com (pinging bing.com goes to 65.55.175.254, which times out), in case that's useful to anyone - since this is only happening to some people, it could be an issue which isn't present on all of Bing's servers.
- JonoW 15y ago
  Got it to break; someone else here mentioned that when they cleared all bing.com cookies it generated the error - I got the same when I did that...
PooBakery 15y ago
Try to open them in an incognito window on chrome. That way the error shows up for me.

mackie 15y ago

Either that – or Bing itself is getting blocked from spidering Google on these queries ;)

bingaling 15y ago

For me, bing only produces errors if you don't have any bing cookies initialized. A presumption that bots wouldn't store+return cookies?

est 15y ago
I tried 1. visit www.bing.com first 2. search for few random words 3. search those URLs OP mentioned 4. They all works now. Looks like a bug how Bing handles cookies.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

jrussbowman 15y ago

Works fine for me on the mobile site. Also the api returns results http://www.unscatter.com/search/?q=Phpbb+%2Fbing http://www.unscatter.com/search/?q=Phpbb+%2Fbing

1880 15y ago

> phpBB has a pretty bad security record Not exactly true. phpBB2 has a bad security record. phpBB3 has been clean since day 1, IIRC.

ckwalsh 15y ago
I work with phpBB, and felt a little awkward stepping forth and saying this, so I'm glad somebody did. phpBB3 has had a couple tiny problems, but nothing that could be used to attack users of a site or propagate an issue.
- calloc 15y ago
  And still many people will refuse to use phpBB or have anything to do with it because of its checkered past.
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    I won't use phpbb or vbulletin or any of them because they feel cludgy. I don't want signatures. Two lines of text shouldn't occupy 500 pixels on my screen. And conversations among tons of people don't make sense when displayed at one hierarchy. Reddit and HN have spoiled me, any sort of unmoderated single-hierarchy forum is a chore anymore.
    - streptomycin 15y ago
      I'm out of the loop I suppose... what software would you use for, say, a support forum or something? I still use phpBB, and it works, but I agree it feels cludgy.
      - StavrosK 15y ago
        I'd use the reddit/HN codebase, or a reddit/HN clone.
      - jordanlev 15y ago
        You might like Vanilla Forums better: http://vanillaforums.org/ http://vanillaforums.org/

ahmetalpbalkan 15y ago

http://www.bing.com/search?q=topic+view http://www.bing.com/search?q=topic+view works very well on me.

divtxt 15y ago
For me just now: Ref A: 1868CAC6D8EA4D63B186C4E1C09E8822 Ref B: 22A00154B361421B403038C5A5D4A80F Ref C: Mon Aug 01 17:20:45 2011 PST Edit: this is under Chrome incognito mode as others have mentioned
- walrus 15y ago
  Same for me (different numbers, though). I'm not surprised, though—I'm on an EC2 VPN, which some internet services are somewhat biased against (notably Stack Overflow).

mmuro 15y ago

Can't say I've ever been to Bing on this computer, but clicking on the links gives me the error. However, after visiting Bing.com and then clicking on the links, they work.

bbg 15y ago

I started using Bing recently and I noticed that I was getting error pages intermittently, and then pretty frequently. phpbb and topic view are returning error pages for me (on latest ff, cookies enabled). Another way I'm reliably getting an error page is adding parameter &first=201, e.g. http://www.bing.com/search?q=stuff&first=201 http://www.bing.com/search?q=stuff&first=201 This is the paging parameter, indicating you're at the 20th screen of results.

Torn 15y ago

Problem still occurs for me when clicking his links - no bing cookies here as I don't use it.

Kivett 15y ago

They didn't fix sh*t. It's still doing the same thing for me.