MediaWiki
MediaWiki (hereinafter, the Software) is a free and open-source wiki software. The Software was originally developed for Wikipedia, but now the Software runs on many websites and has become the dominant software in its category. The Software is written in the PHP programming language and stores the contents into a set of databases.
The software is optimized to efficiently handle large projects, which can have terabytes of content and hundreds of thousands of hits per second. According to MediaWiki, achieving scalability through multiple layers of caching and database replication has been a major concern for developers. The software has more than 900 configuration settings and more than 1,900 extensions available for enabling various features to be added or changed.
On Wikipedia alone, more than 1000 automated and semi-automated bots and other tools have been developed to assist in editing. It has also been deployed by some companies as an internal knowledge management system, and some educators have assigned students to use the Software for collaborative group projects.
Contents
Permitted user roles
Permitted user roles are specific access and ability permissions that can be assigned to customizable user groups.
Any user
- Any user (including anonymous) is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for CNM Wikiware.
Category Right Description User groups that have this right Reading read WhitelistRead> *, user Editing createaccount createaccount - register / registration *, sysop createpage 1>edit</> right *, user createtalk 1>edit</> right *, user edit edit *, user Management editmyoptions editmyoptions * editmyprivateinfo editmyprivateinfo * editmyusercss editmyusercss * editmyuserjs editmyuserjs * editmywatchlist editmywatchlist * viewmyprivateinfo viewmyprivateinfo * viewmywatchlist viewmywatchlist * Technical writeapi writeapi *, user, bot
Registered user
- Any user with his or her registered account, when he or she is identified, is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for CNM Wikiware.
Category Right Description User groups that have this right Reading read WhitelistRead> *, user Editing applychangetags applychangetags user createpage 1>edit</> right *, user createtalk 1>edit</> right *, user edit edit *, user upload 1>edit</> right user, sysop reupload 1>upload</> right user, sysop reupload-shared 1>upload</> right) user, sysop sendemail sendemail user Management changetags changetags - 104--> currently unused by extensions user editmyuserjson editmyuserjson user Technical minoredit minoredit user purge purge - 135--> [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:URL</>|URL parameter]] " &action=purge"user writeapi writeapi *, user, bot
Autoconfirmed
- Any user with his or her registered account, when he or she is identified and confirmed that his or her age confirms requirements established by the Software, is permitted to use the following functions in the version of the Software that is used for CNM Wikiware.
|<translate> registered accounts at least as old as <tvar|AutoConfirmAge>Template:Ll</> and having at least as many edits as <tvar|AutoConfirmCount>Template:Ll</>.</translate> |autoconfirmed, editsemiprotected
Category Right Description User groups that have this right Editing editsemiprotected editsemiprotected - 79--> without cascading protection autoconfirmed, sysop Technical autoconfirmed autoconfirmed - 145--> used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information autoconfirmed, bot, sysop
Bot
accounts with the bot right (intended for automated scripts). |autoconfirmed, autopatrol, apihighlimits, bot, editsemiprotected, nominornewtalk, suppressredirect, writeapi
Category Right Description User groups that have this right Administration autopatrol UseRCPatrol>{{ll|Manual:$wgUseRCPatrol|$wgUseRCPatrol</> must be true bot, sysop Technical apihighlimits apihighlimits bot, sysop autoconfirmed autoconfirmed - 145--> used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information autoconfirmed, bot, sysop bot bot - 134--> can optionally be viewed bot nominornewtalk nominornewtalk - 137--> requires minor edit right bot suppressredirect suppressredirect bot, sysop writeapi writeapi *, user, bot
Sysop
users who by default can delete and restore pages, block and unblock users, et cetera.
Category Right Description User groups that have this right Editing editprotected editprotected - 78--> without cascading protection sysop editsemiprotected editsemiprotected - 79--> without cascading protection autoconfirmed, sysop createaccount createaccount - register / registration *, sysop move 1>edit</> right user move-categorypages 1>move</> right) user move-rootuserpages 1>move</> right user move-subpages 1>move</> right user movefile 1>move</> right and <tvar|AllowImageMoving>{{ll|Manual:$wgAllowImageMoving|$wgAllowImageMoving</> to be true user upload 1>edit</> right user, sysop upload_by_url 1>upload</> right sysop reupload 1>upload</> right user, sysop reupload-shared 1>upload</> right) user, sysop Management bigdelete bigdelete sysop block block - 92--> Block options include preventing editing and registering new accounts, and autoblocking other users on the same IP address sysop blockemail blockemail - 93--> allows preventing use of the Special:Emailuser interface when blocking sysop browsearchive browsearchive - 89--> through Special:Undelete sysop delete 1>'undelete'</> right, see below sysop deletedhistory deletedhistory sysop deletedtext deletedtext sysop editinterface editinterface - 106--> contains [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Interface</>|interface messages]] sysop, interface-admin markbotedits markbotedits - 101--> see [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Administrators#Rollback</>|Manual:Administrators#Rollback]] sysop mergehistory mergehistory sysop patrol UseRCPatrol>{{ll|Manual:$wgUseRCPatrol|$wgUseRCPatrol</> must be true sysop protect protect sysop rollback rollback sysop unblockself unblockself - 96--> Without it, an administrator that has the capability to block cannot unblock themselves if blocked by another administrator sysop undelete undelete sysop editsitecss editsitecss sysop editsitejs editsitejs sysop Administration autopatrol UseRCPatrol>{{ll|Manual:$wgUseRCPatrol|$wgUseRCPatrol</> must be true bot, sysop import import - 126--> “transwiki” sysop importupload importupload - 128--> This right was called 'importraw' in and before version 1.5 sysop managechangetags managechangetags - 132--> currently unused by extensions sysop unwatchedpages unwatchedpages - 131--> lists pages that no user has watchlisted sysop Technical apihighlimits apihighlimits bot, sysop autoconfirmed autoconfirmed - 145--> used for the 'autoconfirmed' group, see the other table below for more information autoconfirmed, bot, sysop ipblock-exempt ipblock-exempt sysop noratelimit noratelimit - 138--> not affected by [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:$wgRateLimits</>|rate limits]] (prior to the introduction of this right, the configuration variable <tvar|RateLimitsExcludedGroups>{{ll|Manual:$wgRateLimitsExcludedGroups|$wgRateLimitsExcludedGroups</> was used for this purpose) sysop, bureaucrat suppressredirect suppressredirect bot, sysop
Bureaucrat
Users who by default can change other users' rights.
Category Right Description User groups that have this right Management userrights AddGroups>{{ll|Manual:$wgAddGroups|$wgAddGroups</> and <tvar|RemoveGroups>{{ll|Manual:$wgRemoveGroups|$wgRemoveGroups</> you can set the possibility to add/remove certain groups instead of all bureaucrat Administration noratelimit Not affected by [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:$wgRateLimits</>|rate limits]] (prior to the introduction of this right, the configuration variable <tvar|RateLimitsExcludedGroups>{{ll|Manual:$wgRateLimitsExcludedGroups|$wgRateLimitsExcludedGroups</> was used for this purpose) sysop, bureaucrat
Legacy functions and roles
Category Right Description User groups that have this right Editing autocreateaccount autocreateaccount - 210--> a more limited version of createaccount reupload-own 1>upload</> right (note that this is not needed if the group already has the <tvar|reupload>reupload</> right) Management deletelogentry deletelogentry - 121--> allows deleting/undeleting information (action text, summary, user who made the action) of specific log entries (not available by default) deleterevision deleterevision - 122--> allows deleting/undeleting information (revision text, edit summary, user who made the edit) of specific revisions 123--> Split into deleterevision and deletelogentry in 1.20 (not available by default) editcontentmodel editcontentmodel editinterface editinterface - 106--> contains [[<tvar|man>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Interface</>|interface messages]] sysop, interface-admin editsitejson editsitejson interface-admin editusercss editusercss interface-admin edituserjs edituserjs interface-admin edituserjson edituserjson interface-admin hideuser HideUserContribLimit>{{wg|HideUserContribLimit</> to disable. pagelang PageLanguageUseDB>{{ll|Manual:$wgPageLanguageUseDB|$wgPageLanguageUseDB</> must be true patrolmarks patrolmarks suppressionlog suppressionlog suppressrevision suppressrevision - 119--> Prior to 1.13 this right was named hiderevision (not available by default) userrights-interwiki userrights-interwiki viewsuppressed viewsuppressed - 120--> i.e. a more narrow alternative to "suppressrevision" (not available by default) Administration autopatrol UseRCPatrol>{{ll|Manual:$wgUseRCPatrol|$wgUseRCPatrol</> must be true bot, sysop siteadmin siteadmin - 124--> which blocks all interactions with the web site except viewing. 125--> Disabled by default
Security
As any open-source software, the Wiki is vulnerable to external attacks:
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Security
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Security_for_developers
