Member Makes Himself A Moderator

[Speedup]

Forum URL: (private)

I am not sure how this was possible, but a member has managed to make himself a Moderator. I am the only Admin and I did not confer this title to him. As far as I can see, he has no boards assigned to him and so will not be able to physically perform the duty.

He must have hacked into the system, in order to achieve this.

Has anyone any idea who this happened and is there anything that can be done to prevent it in the future?

The security log shows that he has added himself to the group Moderator.

[Kami]

Feb 6, 2024 21:27:25 GMT -8 Speedup said:

Forum URL: (private)

I am not sure how this was possible, but a member has managed to make himself a Moderator. I am the only Admin and I did not confer this title to him. As far as I can see, he has no boards assigned to him and so will not be able to physically perform the duty.

He must have hacked into the system, in order to achieve this.

Has anyone any idea who this happened and is there anything that can be done to prevent it in the future?

The security log shows that he has added himself to the group Moderator.

Before we start sounding the "hacked" alarm bell, let's rewind and look at more common explanations.

If you go to admin > members > member groups, what is the moderator group set to: public, or private?

Public groups allow anyone to join if they edit their profile and change their member group. Private means they must be added by a staff member, or a group leader.

[Speedup]

Thank you, the group was set to Public as the default. I find that strange, since most Admins would want to control this themselves.

[Craig]

Feb 6, 2024 22:02:15 GMT -8 Speedup said:

Thank you, the group was set to Public as the default. I find that strange, since most Admins would want to control this themselves.

By default, it would have been set to private.  I have just created a forum to confirm that it is set to private when the forum is created.    

[Scott]

Just thought I'd add my 2¢ to confirm that the default groups (Administrator, Global Moderator, Moderator) have always been set to Private for new forums. This has not changed.