Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vbStopForumSpam - known spammer lookup for new registrations

vbStopForumSpam

This provides access to a RBL type system for forum admins, listing known spam IP / email / usernames. The RBL database is provided by www.stopforumspam.com. You do NOT need an API key from the website in order to access the database. only to submit data if you should wish to do so.

At the point of user registration, the mod checks if the IP number / provided username / email addresses appear on a block list and can block the registration.

Whilst this isnt the most perfect way to stop all forum spam, its another step that spammers have to overcome.

VB4 here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...hreadid=230921
Its the same code, it works in 3.54 to 4.0


What it does

It checks with a remote database of known forum spammers. Their IP number, email address and forum username are tested and based on your configuration, you can reject / log / accept user registrations based on what you get back.

This version doesnt have
- whitelisting or the ability to submit users to the database but it will within the next week.
- automatic user deletion / post / PM purging. There are good tools out there already, this does something else.

Instructions are included in the installation.txt file - PLEASE read it first and dont forget to actually upload the files in the upload folder, otherwise it WILL kill your registration progress and you wont see the log file options in admincp. You do not need to download the product-vbstopforumspam-3.54.xml file unless you are using a vBulletin version older than 3.6.0

Changes to vB
- 3 new database tables
- 2 database table alternations
- No new templates.
- 2 Hook (register_addmember_process & register_addmember_complete)

Ive tested it but had feedback that it works with versions as old as 3.6.2... Support should go back to older versions, as long as they have hook support for register_addmember_process / register_addmember_complete

Known to work - tested by me
- vBulletin 3.6.8 on Apache 2.2 / PHP 5.1.2 on Linux using cUrl
- vBulletin 3.7 Gold on Apache 2.0 / PHP 4.4.3 on Windows without cUrl (template changes wont work on 3.7 - thats in the next version with auto template changes)

For code to submit spammers to the database, check this post for code changes
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=288

Reported in the thread to work
- 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.9, 3.6.10, 3.7.0, 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3, 3.74, 3.80, 3.81, 3.82, 3.83, 3.8.4, 4.0beta3

If you have 3.54, then you can use the product-vbstopforumspam-3.54.xml file attached instead of the one in the ZIP file, which will allow older vBulletin versions to access this mods' features. I personally havent tested this version, its a user contribution, thanks to Darrell Mobley, that changes the way the XML works when imported into older versions.

Installers should remember to refresh their ACP navigation window when they first install it so they can see the new log file menu item.

REQUIRES MySQL 4.1.1+

Future versions
- Automatic integration into vBulletin to add users to the stopForumSpam.com database from a form
- Whitelisting of username / IP / email addresses
- AJAX integration to allow for lookups from within the users profile
- Decreased remote query count from three per user to one per user.

Versions / Changes

0.1 Initial Release

0.2 pedigrees special brew birthday release.
- Small security update. If you have 0.1 installed, download 0.2 and replace your existing functions_vbsfs.php with the one in the archive. It just tests to see if its running inside the VB framework before anything else. This is what happens when you code at 2am after drinking wine

0.3
- stopped it processing valid registrations twice
- moved all non-function code into the plugin. Not a big one as 0.2 basically did that
- fixed a typo in the log pruner that stopped it working (404)
- removed unused fields from the database for people with mysql that doesnt support varchar > 255 (ie mySQL4). If you have 0.2 installed and dont need to prune your logs just yet, you dont really need to install this version but can instead wait for 1.0 unless of a massive security update.

0.4
- logs registrations that arent/wouldnt be blocked
- fixed XML errors when username has a space it in
- tightened up the cache so that it doesnt test a username against an email name to give a bypass result (for when a username is an email address that isnt banned where the email address is)
- fixed some basic logic errors in the PHP

0.6
- Should work on PHP 4.4 now - rewrote the XML with PHP4 in mind (tested on Apache2.0/PHP 4.4.3)
- Fixed a caching system where data wasnt being updated correctly which could cause a remote query when one wasnt needed
- Possible false negative situation when a spammer was blocked due to SFS.com being down who then visited again when it was up but within the cache expiry time
- Remote query failure when the result page isnt XML should work a bit better now. It does a very basic test for valid XML results.
- Fixed log purging (again) and it should actually work properly now.
- No longer requires PHP5
- The log viewer now links to a user profile when registration is allowed.

v0.61 - Removed a template change that was invalid vBulletin code. The package you download will still say its 0.60 however

NB : When upgrading from any version to 0.6, you must remove and then add the plugin due to changes in one of the database tables

You need to have an API key from www.stopforumspam.com in order to submit data, its free and easy to get... You DONT need an API key in order to use this mod however, only to submit spammer data.

Issues are
- The usergroup permissions / view details etc DONT work. I jumped the gun and put the permissions controls in there before I put the code in. Please delete the includes/xml/bitfield_vbstopforumspam.xml file and rebuild your postbit

Installation
- Follow the instructions in the zip file, that includes upload the correct folders
- ONLY download the 3.54 xml file if youre using a vbulletin version prior to 3.6.0. use this file to install the mod instead of the xml file in the zip file.

Please click Installed

[pedigree]

Im just in the final stages of the statistics/reporting engine but baby, work and travel are getting on top of me at the moment. I have a couple of weeks leave coming up so Im hopeful

[Jasmin]

Originally Posted by pedigree

Donations to date

October 2008
"Stuff used to buy my children food with" $0
"Drive to get 0.7 completed" medium

Wow, that's really stupid. This is one of the most essential mods on here!

Personally, it has cut down more than half of my usual spammer volume, all automatically. That saves me and my team a LOT of time. Since time is something we can't replace, and misplaced attention is costly, I just sent you $50 as a thank you. In reality, you deserve more, but I hope the rest of the community starts pitching in, too.

You might want to consider charging for a version of this one (a deluxe version or a commercial key for those make money with their forum?) It might be great to get picked up by vbulletin.com itself. That $55/yr Akismet thing they have on there doesn't do anything useful compared to this. People mostly get false positives w/that one.

Honestly, it really sort of teed me off that I upgraded from my forum in large part to get access to Akismet, only to have it work against against us. Thankfully, your mod rocks, and is part of a total solution to the very real problem spammers bring. Thank you. Thank you!!

[pedigree]

Wow, thats fantasic, thanks! I never expected that anyone would donate and $50 is fantasic. This is great motivation and Im going to get stuck into the code again right now.

To address your points, yeah, charging could make me some more money, it certainly would be good but I think I just hate spammers more. Im hoping that people will see value for money in the plugin and see that value in a donation. Im working as a developer on sfs at the moment and working to get the next version of the api set out so that we can really take it to people. We are giving serious though to limiting some of the biggest users as there are some hitting the API several thousand times a day but for people with forums like you and me, its still going to be free.

Thank you again, you made my day

[GlowHost.com]

Where are the use registration logs stored for users who were prevented from registering?

FYI I have this installed on 3.7.4 and everything seems to work other than:

A) I have no idea to see if it is working because I cannot find the logs
2) From install.txt

5 - Edit Usergroup permissions (Optional) (AdminCP -> Usergroup -> Usergroup Manager -> (Group) ->
vbStopForumSpam Permissions - Access / View / Submit
Here you can allow specific usergroups access to details in User Ooptions/ Whos Online etc

This does not appear to be an option in 3.7.4

[pedigree]

Originally Posted by GlowHost.com

Where are the use registration logs stored for users who were prevented from registering?

FYI I have this installed on 3.7.4 and everything seems to work other than:

A) I have no idea to see if it is working because I cannot find the logs
2) From install.txt

This does not appear to be an option in 3.7.4

You need to read the thread a bit more but I admit, thats a bit hard as its 22 pages long. The logs are in the admincp, statistics & logs / vbstopforumspam logs. Ill edit the first post and detail one bugs that is easily fixed and detail this issue

if its not there, and as you cant find the usergroup options (that dont work in 0.61,. I jumped the gun) then I dont think you uploaded the files in the "upload" folder.

[Delphiprogrammi]

Originally Posted by pedigree

You need to read the thread a bit more but I admit, thats a bit hard as its 22 pages long. The logs are in the admincp, statistics & logs / vbstopforumspam logs. Ill edit the first post and detail one bugs that is easily fixed and detail this issue

if its not there, and as you cant find the usergroup options (that dont work in 0.61,. I jumped the gun) then I dont think you uploaded the files in the "upload" folder.

1) he did not uploaded the bitfield XML file to /includes/xml

2) he did not rebuilded his bitfields /admincp/index.php?do=buildbitfields

[pedigree]

buildbitfields, that was the command I was looking for, thanks delphi 0.7 doesnt use them but if I delete them, it trashes the usergroup management until bitfields are rebuilt so I was looking at the easiest way to do it automatically inside the script

[GlowHost.com]

Originally Posted by pedigree

You need to read the thread a bit more but I admit, that's a bit hard as its 22 pages long. The logs are in the admincp, statistics & logs / vbstopforumspam logs. Ill edit the first post and detail one bugs that is easily fixed and detail this issue

if its not there, and as you cant find the usergroup options (that don't work in 0.61,. I jumped the gun) then I don't think you uploaded the files in the "upload" folder.

Thanks for your response. Have you tried this on 3.7.4?

The logs you mention do not show up for me in this version.

Per he install.txt

Upload the upload folder into the root of your forums. If you've changed the admincp folder to something else,
then make sure you move the admincp files into that folder.

They make no mention of the images and includes directories. However, I have in fact uploaded the files in admincp to the admincp dir, the images to the images dir, and the includes to the includes dir.

So either I botched the install somehow, or its not compatible with 3.7.4 OR not compatible with some of the mods I have on here but I don't see why at the very least the menu option for " admincp, statistics & logs / vbstopforumspam logs" would not be generated since none of the mods I have in here should effect side nav in admincp.

[pedigree]

if you have an "upload" folder in the root of your install, then yes, you uploaded the folder instead of its contents. If you go to register (do it yourself) youll get an error if you uploaded the "upload" folder and not its contents. THe easist thing to do is FTP to your server, drag the contents of the upload folder to the root, this will put the files into the rights folders

yes, it works in 3.7.4

http://glowhost.com/forums/images/st...sfs_submit.gif

http://glowhost.com/forum/includes/functions_vbsfs.php

the fact that thats a 404 page makes me think you havent uploaded the files correctly

[GlowHost.com]

I definately do not have an upload folder in there and I do understand the concept of which files belong where. I am going to try to re-install the files and see how it goes. Nice catch on the images thing.