Are you able to download the database directly from AdminCP?
 

Is this possible?

Sorry, that is not possible. In my opinion it would be a security nightmare.

Actually, in vB3, yes you can. Admin CP ? Maintenance ? Database Backup. You can save an .sql file to your computer or backup one to a location on your server (which you should promptly move to someplace not publically accessible.)

However, it's generally not recommended to use, as timeouts can corrupt your download. Something like Telnet/PuTTy is preferable.

I did not see that it was a VB3 question. Thanks @digital_jedi. :)

I knew you could back it, but never used the option. I thought it would be saved within your site folder only, not allow you to download it.
I set it in config so no one could use this option. I considered it a security flaw.

After thinking about it a little. I am sure that vBulletin designed it to be safe, if
carefully deployed. The problem is beginners do not carefully deploy anything. So I do think it is an expert option that should be used carefully or not at all -- granted, I have not looked at the code. :)

I dont think you can. Better use your cpanel as everyone does

It just seems to be one of those functions that was hardly ever used. (Kinda like Upload Smilies.) I guess it was removed from vB4? It was never really recommended. The couple of times I tried it on our small board, and I never got a uncorrupted download.

In v3 you can even choose what tables you want to download, making it very convenient for a rouge admin or a script kiddie who just happened to get into a admin account, to just choose the users table and scrape your member base. Not much chance of that relatively small download being corrupted.

I guess it was useful for downloading individual tables, in addition to the CSV backup. But I don't think I've ever heard of anyone's site being compromised through that specific feature. I mean, once you have admin access, there's better ways into the server.

If you have only adminCP access, not really. It doesn't necessarily follow that those credentials get you into the server too.

I definitely agree with blind-eddie and you this was a major security flaw in v3.

It would be pretty trivial to re-add the functionality via a creative plugin, or template, or a bit of both. So it all depends on how skilled an admin is and if you're giving them access to stuff like plugins/templates and trust them.

We removed the backup functionality because it was not dependable to create quality backups. Instead of spending additional time improving it, it was removed. We'd recommend that customer use better tools like the raw MySQLdump command line too, or software designed to do backups like mysqldumper.

I'm not a fan of it so i am definitely not calling for it in v4 or v5.

Thanks @Zachery, for the explanation. ;)

No more or less secure than the ability to run queries from the Admin CP. Come to think of it, that's of those other ways in.

Right but, being able to download the tables is unique to v3 and earlier. Plus, the ability to run queries must be permissioned in config file.

It doesn't seem to be something that was ever used, at least not proficiently. And it was in vB 3 as far back as I can remember. I'm not entirely sure it isn't tied to a script permission, but I'd have to check. It just seems like it was so unreliable not even hackers bothered with it.

Or they might not have known about it. It IS a obscure function.

It was used pretty often by some customers, I remember getting complaints about it early on in vB4's life cycle. But honestly, people who used the tool rarely got full backups, which caused more problems.

We removed it for the sake of causing less problems in the long run, IIRC.

TBH, on smaller boards, I still use this, https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=192488

I had to tweak it a bit to get it to work on vB4 but it does it's job.

What I meant to say is it doesn't seem like it was ever used for hacking. I probably shouldn't have said "proficiently", rather, "often". Meaning that if it was used, you didn't really hear about it ever happening.

I never use the built-in database dump functionality, as almost all dumps were corrupted. I always use an external utility to dump the data. Even phpMyAdmin is not recommended to backup and restore complete databases (at least if they are bigger than 2 MBytes).
If you have a root or dedicated server with access to the shell, then the fastest and safiest backup can be done with the mysqldump utility.
If you only can access FTP, then you should consider to install MySQLDumper (and secure it using a password), which can even backup and restore very big databases from the Browser.

I've always liked using PuTTy, once I stopped making typos and trying to access the wrong site. Ah, those early days.

Ha. That still happens to me even in my OLD days!