Miscellaneous Hacks - Stop the Registration Bots

Control your vBulletin forum registration process and stop the registration bots.

This mod will check the the time it takes for a vBulletin registration form to be submitted. If the form is submitted faster then humanly possible, the registration will be denied and the admin contact will be emailed about the event. The time is settable

We will start the registration on the forum rules page in two ways. First we will add a custom hidden field with a hash. Second we will insert a randomly named hidden field with a random value. This should make it a bit difficult to program a bot since the field names on all sites will be different as well as the values.

We will use a second set of random hidden fields on the form page as well to add to the confusion.

Time stamps to check the time spent on registration submission are stored in a DB table and private.

A registration will have to come through the Rules page and the form. Every Site will be different.

Installation is very easy.

There are two templates to edit.
One database table is added.
Three hooks are utilized.
Includes uninstall code.
Adds to vBulletin options.
Set time frame option.
Includes Phrases.
Sends Mail to Admin.
No files to upload.
XML product install.
Instructions attached in zip.

Demo usage and view source at http://www.riderinfo.com/

Compatibility
This hack is known to work on vBulletin 3.6.11 PL1 and will likely work back a few versions in the 3.6.x vBulletin series. Of course it works on 3.7.x as posted too.

HISTORY
1.2.2
added admin email on/off setting
moved hook code to files to reduce overhead.
1.2.1
Added Enable/Disable setting.
Fixed coppa includes file probem
Added file upload instructions to readme file.
1.2.0
Added JS timer to registration button.
Added enable/diable for email.
Removed ACP settings for random fields on rules and reg form pages and automated.
Reworded Pharses in ACP.
Recoded rules form and reg form edits.
Renamed variables for better code following.
Added more DB fields per user reg for tracking random automation.
New Hook on start_registration for functions.
Added new functions file. includes/stb_functions.php.
1.0.3
Changed input user name on rules form to random named hidden field with hash value.
Removed \n chars from email phrases.
All changes to registration are transparent to the folks registering.
Renamed DB username field to hash.
New hook on register_signup.
1.0.2
Added new Pre Reg Name hidden field to register form edits and ACP.
Added code to deal transparently with user deciding to change name after pre submitting it.
1.0.1
Fixed typo, changed 36000 to 3600 in product file.
1.0.0
Original Release.

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by noppid

You don't want to use both I don't think. I used the best ideas from that and made them a little stronger. With the ideas ya'll are sharing, we should only need one app once we get all the features sorted.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Spam bots are becoming an increasing problem and we need a very advanced solution for this. There are various useful hacks to counter bots, but it is not possible to combine several of them. Especially those hacks that deal with the registration. It would be nice to have one integration for all of them.

Would this hack work with:
Enhanced Image Captcha - Stop bots from signing up!
vMail - Verify Mail before registration.

[soundbarrierpro]

How is this supposed to work? I have it installed and enabled, but WOL still shows googlebot, yahoo slurp still actively trying to register. Though they don't end up registering, I'm not getting any notifications or anything.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

Originally Posted by soundbarrierpro

How is this supposed to work? I have it installed and enabled, but WOL still shows googlebot, yahoo slurp still actively trying to register. Though they don't end up registering, I'm not getting any notifications or anything.

lol those aren't the bots you need to worry about

in fact, you WANT those bots on your site.

[soundbarrierpro]

Originally Posted by GrendelKhan{TSU

lol those aren't the bots you need to worry about

in fact, you WANT those bots on your site.

Oh, I don't want to get rid of them, I want them to stop trying to register.

[djlotus]

Thank you very much for this. I will install ASAP on 3.7.3 and report the results.

Bots have been a serious issue these past 3 months, and I thank you for the time you have spent to improve the vB experience for the whole community.

**INSTALLED**

[Brandon Sheley]

good to see a 3.7 mod by ya noppid

[puredarkness]

Great stuff Marked as Installed

Thanks

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by soundbarrierpro

Oh, I don't want to get rid of them, I want them to stop trying to register.

disallow them from register.php, by listing this in your robots.txt

Here's what I have listed in my robots.txt file:
Disallow: /calendar.php
Disallow: /editpost.php
Disallow: /member.php
Disallow: /memberlist.php
Disallow: /misc.php
Disallow: /newreply.php
Disallow: /newthread.php
Disallow: /printthread.php
Disallow: /private.php
Disallow: /register.php
Disallow: /report.php
Disallow: /search.php
Disallow: /showgroups.php
Disallow: /usercp.php
Disallow: /admincp/
Disallow: /modcp/
Disallow: /online.php
Disallow: /subscription.php
Disallow: /threadrate.php
Disallow: /poll.php
Disallow: /attachment.php
Disallow: /avatar.php
Disallow: /faq.php
Disallow: /usercp.php
Disallow: /profile.php

User-agent: Custo
Disallow: /

User-agent: Slurp
Crawl-delay: 10

[TheComputerGuy]

It is possible to not get the emails? I currently get about 40 a day from the ISbot mod from Calorie...and it kills me deleting them from my phone since the email system is linked.

[glorify]

Originally Posted by TheComputerGuy

It is possible to not get the emails? I currently get about 40 a day from the ISbot mod from Calorie...and it kills me deleting them from my phone since the email system is linked.

Same for me--phone deletion and all lmao.