Super Administrator

[Goddess Washu]

A user group that cannot be deleted (nor can it's members be changed by Administrators) and has access to other tools, such as phpMyAdmin.

[tubedogg]

The idea of a super-admin group is a good one; however providing user authentication for other tools would be beyond the scope of vB at this point.

[orca]

Access to phpmyadmin can't be given by vBulletin since it's not included in the package and not everyone has it. Some hosts have it included in their Control Panel but it would need "virtual server" access to use it, means they would also be able to add e.g. email accounts etc.

[Goddess Washu]

With phpmyadmin, I meant access sensitive integration. Also, perhaps logging would only be able to be edited and deleted by a Super Administrator.

[Goddess Washu]

Originally posted by tubedogg
The idea of a super-admin group is a good one; however providing user authentication for other tools would be beyond the scope of vB at this point.

Can't you just rework the adminlog function to be sensitive to a higher user group?

And should this (could this) be moved to the hack forum?

[tubedogg]

Yep, I'll move it for ya. :)

I fail to see how the adminlog has anything to do with providing access to 3rd party tools such as phpMyAdmin.

[Goddess Washu]

Originally posted by tubedogg
Yep, I'll move it for ya. :)

I fail to see how the adminlog has anything to do with providing access to 3rd party tools such as phpMyAdmin.

Sorry, I guess I am sounding a bit incoherent right now.

Basically a super administrator would be able to do various Super administrator like things (go figure -_-; ) such as, but not including:
1) access to phpMyAdmin (allowing for raw database manipulation)
2) ability to edit and delete admin and moderator logs
3) File access, sort of like web-based FTP

and possible modifcations to differentiate Administrators and Super Administrators further:
1) Super Adminstrator can edit posts without being noticed and Administrators can't. (feature is already implemented for administrators) No "edited by" line.
2) Can browse the board completely unnoticed (not even listed as a member)
3) Can access user passwords (if denoted in the config.php file, admins cannot)
4) Styles and template editing only for Super Administrators... Since one has to be very familiar with vBB. Admnistrators can view and activate/deavtivate.

chances are there are many other things that could be done with a super adminstrator

[Goddess Washu]

I guess this is too much for a hack to do... perhaps it should be moved back to the Suggestions forum... :(

[Goddess Washu]

Fine then, nice to see people responded. :mad:
I'll just amke it myself. :mad:

[tweak]

This would be a NICE HACK.... there should always be Only 1 Super Admin that is totally safe... from anything. I say this would be a GREAT HACK

[drives_fast]

I am very interested in this hack since I have 2 other admins after myself and I dont want them to screw up and delete me by accident/on purpose.

Please , if this has been done.......let me know.

thanks....drives

[Goldfinger]

Im going to have to agree on this it would be an EXCELLENT hack or should be added to 2.1 or 2.0.4 or whatever the next build is :). Good idea.

[Palmer ofShinra]

I've done something akin to this myself on my board, as we recently got hacked... and since View Passwords in CP was visible... blech.

My solution was simple, but a bit kludgey.

I took my Super Mod group (you may need to make a new one if you have seperate super mods) and moved all the extra admins we had into it.

Then, I took the various PHP files from the admin folder (mainly user.php)

And copy/pasted the functions I wanted my super mods to have into the /mod/user.php file.
Mainly, I added the ability to edit profiles.

I removed some of the unneccesary "Useful Links" at the top, for starters.

While I was at it, I edited it so that a number of things were inaccessible, like changing user groups or emails addresses, since both are serious security holes (either they make themselves an admin, or they change your email address to their own, mail themselves your password, and then change your address back)

Also, I added one line to the Find function so that an "[Edit User]" shows up next to each search result.

Access Masks were also insanely simple to add through the same copy/paste method.
Same with IP searching.

I also added other miscellaneous files for what they needed to do, like newsfade.php and styles.php

Finally, I edited /mod/index.php to include new links to all these nifty functions.

Finally, I copied all these files to a new directory on the server (call it supermod).

And then edited /moderator.php (which we have already modified to make a link in each post that takes you to the edit user screen for the user in question) to check for an additional usergroup and if so, redirect to the supermod CP.

Voila! A new CP, with handpicked functions from the admin CP, but not all the danger.

Now we have 3 CPs... one for normal mods, where they can edit custom user fields only (because they need to on our forum)

One for our super mods, who can edit almost everything they could need to.

And one for our admins, with full powers.

I still don't know PHP at all, but as almost all of this is merely copy/paste anyways, it's quite easy.

Next on my list... allowing my supermods to IP ban.

[DarkReaper]

I don't see much point in having this. It seems like you're just taking the administrator user group down to the abilities of moderators, and making a new usergroup that has the abilities of the administrator usergroup.

vBulletin is a forum system, and a very good one. There's not much point in trying to integrate a phpMyAdmin type program as well as web-based FTP into it when I'm sure there's other projects out there that are designed for that and that only.

[Chris M]

Originally posted by Palmer ofShinra
I've done something akin to this myself on my board, as we recently got hacked... and since View Passwords in CP was visible... blech.

My solution was simple, but a bit kludgey.

I took my Super Mod group (you may need to make a new one if you have seperate super mods) and moved all the extra admins we had into it.

Then, I took the various PHP files from the admin folder (mainly user.php)

And copy/pasted the functions I wanted my super mods to have into the /mod/user.php file.
Mainly, I added the ability to edit profiles.

I removed some of the unneccesary "Useful Links" at the top, for starters.

While I was at it, I edited it so that a number of things were inaccessible, like changing user groups or emails addresses, since both are serious security holes (either they make themselves an admin, or they change your email address to their own, mail themselves your password, and then change your address back)

Also, I added one line to the Find function so that an "[Edit User]" shows up next to each search result.

Access Masks were also insanely simple to add through the same copy/paste method.
Same with IP searching.

I also added other miscellaneous files for what they needed to do, like newsfade.php and styles.php

Finally, I edited /mod/index.php to include new links to all these nifty functions.

Finally, I copied all these files to a new directory on the server (call it supermod).

And then edited /moderator.php (which we have already modified to make a link in each post that takes you to the edit user screen for the user in question) to check for an additional usergroup and if so, redirect to the supermod CP.

Voila! A new CP, with handpicked functions from the admin CP, but not all the danger.

Now we have 3 CPs... one for normal mods, where they can edit custom user fields only (because they need to on our forum)

One for our super mods, who can edit almost everything they could need to.

And one for our admins, with full powers.

I still don't know PHP at all, but as almost all of this is merely copy/paste anyways, it's quite easy.

Next on my list... allowing my supermods to IP ban.

Could you post instructions on how to do this?

Satan