vb.org Archive - Board Optimization - Complete Hotlink Protection

I was looking for something fairly targeted for hotlink redirection and didn't find anything posted here suitable, so I'm sharing my solution - it's not ideal - if there is an update to vbulletin I'll need to re-apply my changes, but for my purposes it worked.

I found an image hotlinked to my site from a cricket enthusiast site - the image was this:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2016/01/6.jpg

It was some Indian cricket nut trying to diss the Aussies in a post about cricket after a win by India over Australia, so I specifically targeted referrers from that site to display this image instead:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2016/01/7.jpg

How I ended up doing it was hacky, but it works... in attachment.php, I just added these lines of code:

Code:

if( stripos($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], 'cricketweb.net') !== FALSE ) {

    header('Content-Type: image/jpeg');  

    readfile('images/numberone.jpg');

    exit;

}

Simple, silly and pointless, but I had fun :)

URL of the post hotlinking is here - but no doubt the poster will edit their post when they learn of my tricksies, so it may not last long.

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)bbcode_code_printable (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (1)pagenav_pagelink (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (4)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
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X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information

Page Generation 0.01054 seconds
Memory Usage 1,717KB
Queries Executed 10 (?)

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Template Usage:

(1)ad_footer_end
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./includes/class_hook.php
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./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php
./includes/class_bbcode.php
./includes/functions_bigthree.php

Hooks Called:

init_startup
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init_startup_session_setup_complete
cache_permissions
fetch_threadinfo_query
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Messages:

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.01054 seconds Memory Usage 1,717KB Queries Executed 10 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)bbcode_code_printable (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (1)pagenav_pagelink (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (4)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
Messages: