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.
Donations always appreciated. :up:
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.

[ggrimes620]

Awesome mod!

[lazytown]

First, thank you for posting this and trying to help. I installed this along with other suggestions from OZZY.

Renaming "register.php" is now fairly useless against the latest spam software. It was a good idea and probably once worked quite well,, but spam software (xrumer, etc) must now just be looking at the register link to figure out the URL, so the filename really doesn't matter anymore. I renamed register to completely random numbers/letters, two separate times, and all settings are correct. Within 30 minutes, the spambots are filling out forms on the new register filename. I know they are getting past the rename plugin trick because I'm getting PMs with them being blocked by a separate hostname spam plugin (which does help eliminate some spam).

I wonder if implementing a javascript generated version of the link to register.php (or whatever we rename it to) would block them again for a while, until they figure a way around that as well. That is what some websites use to reduce email harvesters.

[addamroy]

how do I keep stumbling on YOUR mods.

Anyway, couple inquiries for you.

What happens if I have already made some manual template edits changing register.php to something else? For example the register link in the top right corner, I changed where that links to, also changed the URL in the 'no permission' phrases, etc things of that nature.

What I did was took the registration form from your OTHER mod, really fast registration, and put it into a new custom vbulletin page. So naturally I went through a few of the templates/phrases and added my own URL.

My concern is whether or not installing this mod will effect all of the adjustments. I figure I might as well rename register.php to prevent the last bit of spammish traffic that might be going directly to that URL to register, rather than clicking the register button itself, of coarse.

[john7911]

Great Mod thanks BOP

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by addamroy

how do I keep stumbling on YOUR mods.

Anyway, couple inquiries for you.

What happens if I have already made some manual template edits changing register.php to something else? For example the register link in the top right corner, I changed where that links to, also changed the URL in the 'no permission' phrases, etc things of that nature.

What I did was took the registration form from your OTHER mod, really fast registration, and put it into a new custom vbulletin page. So naturally I went through a few of the templates/phrases and added my own URL.

My concern is whether or not installing this mod will effect all of the adjustments. I figure I might as well rename register.php to prevent the last bit of spammish traffic that might be going directly to that URL to register, rather than clicking the register button itself, of coarse.

Any template instances/links to register.php should be automatically changed by this mod to the new value. If you created a custom php file then you may need to manually edit the php file with the new register.php name however really fast registration was coded to work with this mod out of the box.

[gregmlb]

This mod works great - except when a potential registrant is browsing using ForumRunner. If he or she hits the "Register" button through ForumRunner, then a 404 Page Not Found error pops up (because register.php no longer exists).

How can this be fixed so mobile users can successfully register after installation of this mod?

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by gregmlb

This mod works great - except when a potential registrant is browsing using ForumRunner. If he or she hits the "Register" button through ForumRunner, then a 404 Page Not Found error pops up (because register.php no longer exists).

How can this be fixed so mobile users can successfully register after installation of this mod?

Interesting... thanks for letting me know. I'll work on some kind of ForumRunner fix. My initial thought is a copy of register.php but modified so it only works for users in ForumRunner.

[CaptainAwesome]

When i click through the "Link to Edit Email Body Phrases", it takes me to the Email Body Text Page. When i click on edit, it takes me through to a page for the "activeaccount" but i'm unable to edit anything.

How do i edit the activateaccount and activateaccount_change parts?

[lillylissy]

Thank you BirdOPrey5 for this modification!

For PhotoPost-Users a code adjustment is necessary:

Line 380 of vb3.php located in the forums subdirectory of their product:

PHP Code:

$regtext = " &middot; <a href=\"{$Globals['vbulletin']}/register.php?action=signup\">{$Globals['pp_lang']['register']}</a>"; 


[madness85]

the tab email activation codes in admincp at the top of a users profile page or in quick user links still takes me to register.php please help