Anti-Spam Options - Rename register.php by BOP5

Brought to you by BirdOPrey5 / Qapla.com

It's great when you stop spam bots during registration but this mod gives you a chance to stop them BEFORE they even attempt to register.

I have received multiple reports from people who say their "register.php" was getting hammered with spam requests- so much so it was like a denial of service attack. Even if they disabled registration they would waste so much resources their site was slow or worse- had to be taken offline.

What this mod does is allow you to rename the register.php file- my theory is many of the vBulletin spamming bots are hard coded to look for register.php. Using a unique name will throw them off, at least for a while.

To manually change the name of register.php would have meant dozens, maybe hundreds of manual edits to files and templates previously.

This mod makes it as simple as possible. At worst you will need to edit 2 phrases and 1 file, and some people don't need to edit anything at all.

Compatible with VB 3.8.x (and 3.7, and 3.6 probably too) and all VB 4.x.x versions.

Basic Instructions
1) Import XML File
2) Go to mod settings in Admin CP
3) Rename your register.php file via FTP or some other means- make it a unique value but only use basic letters, numbers, underscores, or hyphens. Something like "joeregister999.php"
4) In the mod settings, set the value of register.php to the new file name you chose.
5) If you require email verification during registration follow the next setting in the Admin CP and edit the phrases listed (activateaccount and activateaccount_chnage phrases in Email Body)
6) Finally, if you use Facebook Connect on your forum make the manual file edit of class_bootstrap.php as instructed.

Now enjoy your new filename for register.php, I hope it reduces server load and spam in general.

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Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
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Nominate MOTM if you LOVE it!

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Note- if having problems sending activation codes or other Admin CP related activities use the solution in post #197.

[Cedric_FP]

Despite renaming my register.php, I'm still getting around 150 failed registrations per day from spambots. I use spamhammer, which blocks registrations that take shorter than a certain time (bots fill out instantly).

Does anybody know why renaming my register.php does not seem to have helped?

[BirdOPrey5]

[s]In spam hammer are you using the option to disable clicking on the button until the time limit passes?[/s]

Edit - I see you are, that's good IMO.

You can try editing you welcome phrase, currently-

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Change up the wording, don't make the word register the link to register.php, find some other unique wording. Or get fancy- and say something like- "Click on the XXXXXXX icon to register" and add a few icon/pictures to the box with only one going to register.php. (My mod will take care of renaming register.php to your renamed value.)

[CAG CheechDogg]

Originally Posted by Cedric_FP

Despite renaming my register.php, I'm still getting around 150 failed registrations per day from spambots. I use spamhammer, which blocks registrations that take shorter than a certain time (bots fill out instantly).

Does anybody know why renaming my register.php does not seem to have helped?

Rename your register.php to something else my my Man, signupatfp.php might still be a keyword (signup) that these spammers have their bots and script looking for when they hit websites.

Get as creative as possible and avoid synonyms of the word register ...maybe something like (cavewall.php) or (oaktreeranger.php)...give it something that they would have to really look for physically themselves. Just like a password, you should make it as hard as possible for them to guess your register.php's new name.

You might also what to change the phrase "Register" on any links that are on your home page, maybe something like (Begin Posting) for the register link ...

[Cedric_FP]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

[s]In spam hammer are you using the option to disable clicking on the button until the time limit passes?[/s]

Edit - I see you are, that's good IMO.

You can try editing you welcome phrase, currently-



Change up the wording, don't make the word register the link to register.php, find some other unique wording. Or get fancy- and say something like- "Click on the XXXXXXX icon to register" and add a few icon/pictures to the box with only one going to register.php. (My mod will take care of renaming register.php to your renamed value.)

Originally Posted by CAG CheechDogg

Rename your register.php to something else my my Man, signupatfp.php might still be a keyword (signup) that these spammers have their bots and script looking for when they hit websites.

Get as creative as possible and avoid synonyms of the word register ...maybe something like (cavewall.php) or (oaktreeranger.php)...give it something that they would have to really look for physically themselves. Just like a password, you should make it as hard as possible for them to guess your register.php's new name.

You might also what to change the phrase "Register" on any links that are on your home page, maybe something like (Begin Posting) for the register link ...

Thank you both for your replies. I didn't realize the spambots were so advanced :S I'll try switching these things up and see if that helps!

I'll try to avoid words like join, sign up, register, etc.

[Pocket Aces]

There are still instances of register.php in our current templates, do we need to edit them manually?

[CAG CheechDogg]

Originally Posted by Pocket Aces

There are still instances of register.php in our current templates, do we need to edit them manually?

Pocket Aces, right now I personally don't see a need to do that really, unless you really start getting hit again by these bots....

My opinion on this is if they can't click directly to the old register.php file then they can't really do anything, this mod does enough by just helping you rename what you need and nothing more....again just my opinion..

So I wouldn't worry about renaming the other instances of register.php my Man...

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by Pocket Aces

There are still instances of register.php in our current templates, do we need to edit them manually?

No. The mod can change all other templates on the fly except email templates.

[CAG CheechDogg]

Oh nice, good stuff BOP5 I had no clue it actually did all that ...SawwEEt!

[pjclas]

I installed this and it works well, but there seems to be a problem in the admincp. I am unable to edit a user in the awaiting email confirmation group. When I click on one of these users, I get "The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression." This is not due to a gzip compression issue, I've already verified that. I can edit users in any other group (e.g. Registered users). I also noticed that in firefox, the edit user page flashes briefly prior to getting this message, and firebug shows post data coming back, but it's incomplete.

When I disable this product, I am able to view users in the awaiting email confirmation group with no problem, so I think it is directly related to this. I'm guessing there is something calling the old register.php stuff somewhere that is causing the response to get cut off due to some failure. Anyone else seeing this?

[hpidriver]

If I install this on a forum that is Tapatalk enabled, are any modifications necessary? Just want to make sure it doesn't interfere with the Tapatalk in-app registration. Thanks