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.

[mach5des]

This plug-in has stopped all the spambots now for a few weeks. Amazing stuff. I almost don't want to tell too many people about it as they bots will get around once this catches on. Great plug-in, thanks.

[RGVFMod]

Running 3.7.2

Tried to test registration...I got this.

Warning: require_once([path]/includes/stb_functions.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in [path]/register.php(81) : eval()'d code on line 4

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/forumcom/public_html/includes/stb_functions.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forumcom/public_html/register.php(81) : eval()'d code on line 4

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by RGVFMod

Running 3.7.2

Tried to test registration...I got this.

Warning: require_once([path]/includes/stb_functions.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in [path]/register.php(81) : eval()'d code on line 4

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/forumcom/public_html/includes/stb_functions.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forumcom/public_html/register.php(81) : eval()'d code on line 4

Upload ALL the files

[RGVFMod]

I did upload all the files. Just to be sure, these are to be transferred into the upload folder in the root directory...that's where I have them.

[RGVFMod]

wait a sec...Jeez...

[noppid]

The files go in the forum root folder.

[RGVFMod]

Originally Posted by noppid

The files go in the forum root folder.

Yep...got it running. Thanks.

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by RGVFMod

Yep...got it running. Thanks.

Yeap! they never go in a "Upload" folder but we all have to learn or slap ourselves in the back of the head sometimes even if we knew

I LOVE this mod

I have not had ONE bot since I installed on my new 3.8 site however the site is not completely public YET.

On a 3.7 gaming site it was not working properly so I had to uninstall.
On a 3.6 similar site it had worked fine since day one, I had two bots bypass about 2 weeks later however on that site I had forgotten to change the hidden values in admincp so they might have caught on to those from somewhere else I presume, after the change none so far.

Very nice but the 3.7 board was very weird, I will have to check thier mods to see if another was simply conflicting as they had already installed 2 other anti-bot style mods.

S-MAN

[noppid]

Someone else report an issue with multiple bot stopping hacks installed too. I have no idea which one is the conflict or what it may be however. Too much to install, look at, and debug.

Thanks for the heads up.

[GamerPerfection]

Just installed this, looking forward to seeing it in action.