Get some sleep, handle the basics... we are around :)

Alright - last update before I pass out :

I think I've locked everything down - i've followed the guides I got - but I realize inadvertedly uploading files to the root instead of the includes folder could be causing issues. I went ahead and went line by line to remove anything that didn't belong.

At the moment - If I leave the CMS disabled - the forums work, the blogs don't - and of course the CMS doesn't. I sort of feel like I'm chasing my tail. I'm not convinced that my database has been corrupted or that I have malicious code left....

If I wanted to simply roll back and do a fresh install - how would I go about doing so?

I just wanted to do a final update :

tbworld thanks for your help.

1 - I got my forum back up and running
2 - I'm pretty confident that my forum is secure again
3 - After trying over and over to reinstall 4.2.2 - being unsure why I couldn't get the CMS or blogs to work, and then installing a clean version of 4.2.2 on a new environment and getting the same error - I realized it really was a memory allocation issue. Increasing that and restarting apache eliminated all of those issues. I suspect there are some functions in 4.2.2 that require more memory than in the previous version.

So now I'm off to find some good spam protection plugins - and all is well with the world again LOL

Thanks for updating your progress, it really helps others in a similar situation.

I am glad you are up and running. :)

Yeah it is always helpful when members report back their findings. :)