[thelist] security in TWiki vs. MediaWiki, content migration

John DeStefano john.destefano at gmail.com
Fri Oct 13 19:40:36 CDT 2006


My org supports an unsupported TWiki site (don't ask) for user
collaboration.  Although we've insisted that wikis in general are
extremely trusting by nature and not conducive to our user
environment, and that TWiki sites seem to be a constant target for
exploits, a few key proponents have persisted in demanding that the
TWiki be left intact.  Unfortunately, the TWiki recently got spammed,
and our domain started showing up in search engines for online
pharmacies as a result.

I was wondering if, first, there is any cumulative list of
vulnerabilities of specific wiki products, and more specifically for
TWiki and MediaWiki, since we're trying to convince folks that if a
wiki _must_ be used, MediaWiki, or perhaps some other flavor, would be
a better choice (actually, since I will be implementing Plone for part
of another site, it would be great if Zwiki compared nicely here as
well).

Second, if this effort proves successful, and even more laborious
effort looms: converting all the existing TWiki stuff to MediaWiki or
another format.  MedaiWiki uses PHP/MySQL, and TWiki uses RCS with
flat files, and the syntaxes are slightly different as well.  Has
anyone needed to and had success in converting such content?

As always, your thoughts are greatly appreciated.  I think I'd better
leave a tip for this one....

~John

<tip type="Wiki">
Do you absolutely, positively need to use a wiki, but you don't know
much about them, or you're overwhelmed by the sheer number of product
choices, or maybe you'd even like a little help in making a selection?

Browse on over to WikiMatrix.org [*]. Not only do they keep up
information and statistics on a staggering number of wiki offerings,
but you can select multiple wikis and compare their features, or use a
wizard-style dialog to narrow the choices down for you.

[*] http://www.wikimatrix.org
</tip>



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