JSON.parse error when uploading media files

[kam535]

Summary:
Several students and I encountered an error when trying to upload media files:

On Chrome:
There was an error saving the file: SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<', is not valid JSON

On Firefox and Safari:
There was an error saving the file: SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

I tried adding a test chunk of JSON to the custom JSON section, which is then flagged as the error when I go to debug. Leaving the custom JSON section completely blank still raises the same error.

To reproduce:

1. Log in and open any book
2. Upload media through either the Content section of the book Dashboard or through the Upload button in the page editor
3. Add title, description for media and select file
4. Click Upload

Expected result:
A selected media file with a specified title and description being added to the Content of the book. A green "succesfully uploaded" banner appearing at the bottom of the screen.

[craigdietrich]

Hi @kam535,

Thanks for your writeup! I think you've encountered an ongoing problem, which is that the Scalsr @ USC (scalar.usc.edu/works) server was hit with an attack a couple weeks ago and we're just now getting it back to fully operational. We noticed that pages can't be saved yesterday, and worked to correct it today. Media (which are pages too) would be impacted by that as well.

Things are going to continue to be spotty over the next few days and even week. We appreciate your patience as we get things fully back online.

[kam535]

Hi @craigdietrich,

Thank you for your response and for your hard work! Sorry to hear that there was an attack on the USC server (ugh) and that you're having to do this cleanup, but good to know that you're all working on it. Hopefully things will get back up smoothly soon, and we'll be patient in the meantime and send healing vibes to the USC server.

[alexdryden]

@craigdietrich I wonder if you'd be able to share any details of the attack through private channels. I'm interested in knowing if there is any particular vector we should be looking at hardening or any patch we should apply. And feel welcome to reach out if you'd like more hands/eyes. I'll be back in the office starting next week. I'm available at adryden3 at illinois dot edu.

[craigdietrich]

@alexdryden Unfortunately I don't think we have too many details as to what happened, and may be more related to our PHP 8.2 upgrade. But either way shoot me an email at craigdietrich at gmail?