Miscellaneous Hacks - Ban Spiders by User Agent

What this mod does
With this mod you can enter User Agents to watch or ban, you can also recieve emails or have an Output.txt created and updated with time and date of visits. It doesn't just have to be spiders, you can watch, log or ban any useragent!

How to install
Simply import the product ban_spider, the mod is active by default but none of the other options are turned on.

What is a UserAgent?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent

Understanding a UserAgent string
http://user-agent-string.info/parse

Genuine User Getting Blocked?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=105

Tools to help
http://whatsmyuseragent.com/SwitchingUserAgents.asp
http://www.botsvsbrowsers.com/SimulateUserAgent.asp

FAQ
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=137

What's a bot?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spambot

How do i ban a bot?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=318
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....7&postcount=51

Where's output.txt located?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=216

Bad bot lists
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=259
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=224
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=281

VB4.x Version of Ban Spiders By User Agent

Tested on vb3.7.x, vB3.8.x but should work on any version.

__________________________________________________ __________________
Special thanks to:
Lior
KH99
BoP5
for helping me sort out a few issues

...and beta testers
ForceHSS (Special thanks to Force for latest testing)
ozzy47
GreyHost

If you use this please mark as INSTALLED

History
9th June 2011 Orginal xml added
12th June 2011 Added both email notification and text file logging
22nd June 2011 Version 2.0.0, Added create thread on activity

1. Added match facility you can now use something like Yandex and it will match MOZILLA/5.0 (COMPATIBLE; YANDEXBOT/3.0; +HTTP://YANDEX.COM/BOTS)
2. Added clickable link to visited thread

22nd September 2011 added user redirect url selection
08th October Beta testing started for thread creation.
20th October Beta testing started for emailing.
21st October Beta testing complete Ver 3.0.0 uploaded
29th October minor fix added to cope with empty userid on thread creation
30th October Beta testing automatic redirection to spiders/bots IP
31st October New xml uploaded with automatic redirect to IP
25th November Minor fix for blank forumid fixed
26th November 2011 Fixed version check & create thread Off by default
17th December 2014 Version 3.1.0 uploaded, Extra logging and statistics added by Ozzy47 (Chris)
18th December 2014 Version 3.1.2 uploaded, due to rogue process from other mod
18th December 2014 Version 3.1.3 uploaded, due to previous one being VB4 mistakingly uploaded

The Bad Bots list is now included in the product
Please prune out all those that you wish to be able to see your site (i suggest you definately prune out "DA" and "Custo" :

Support will now only be given to those who have this mod marked as INSTALLED

[Lee G]

I tried three variants and made sure I wernt going to be locked out the forums. Never do anything without a get out of trouble method

First off was two versions of xp
Windows*XP
Windows\XP

Tried viewing over at bots vrs browsers with a simple user agent of Windows XP
When neither of those two worked, I made sure I had another browser fired up, just in case I blocked myself and any browser with any mention of windows in the user agent
And tried plain old Windows XP

Worked a treat. Same as blocking Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME and MSIE 5
No need for any extra variables :up:

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Lee G

...In your file you have SOSO from China, they have now changed their user agent to jikespider

I think you'll find they are still using SOSO too as right now i have 6 of them trying to access my site

[Simon Lloyd]

Lee, you're a star , i just checked the UA from the vb4 version issue and it's not this mod keeping their client out of the forum, until you nudged me i'd completely forgot about bots v browsers even though i have quoted it many times here at vb.org in the past!

[Lee G]

Im just good at breaking things, ask any software developer or skin seller that I use

Another one to consider adding to the block list is UnwindFetchor/1.0
They are another scrape for gain outfit, by the looks of it

[Lee G]

Another one thats good for monitoring or just plain banning is this

I checked it works as is. Its a give away to a messed about with user agent

Google JP must be getting busy

[Simon Lloyd]

Hi Lee, did you mean the wink?

[Lee G]

Should have wrapped it in php tags

PHP Code:

;) 


This is one example of one use agent thats been modified

PHP Code:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;) 


Use the tracking system and see how many user agents use it.
They think by taking out some information, you wont catch on and ban them

One use agent that had a bad habit of trying to inject base64 when I used the other blocking system was this one
libwww-perl

Another that only ever hits from ips on honeypot is this
w3m/

The good thing about this mod, you can track and then decide if its worth banning
Older user agents are worth watching as well. Firefox is an easy one to watch.
Firefox gives you the date the version came out

This example

PHP Code:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.22) Gecko/20110902 Firefox/3.6.22 


If you look at the Geko/ part. It gives the date the version of firefox was released
I ban Firefox/1 and Firefox/2

Opera dont have many use it. I personally love the browser, but its another browser that auto updates. You can catch a lot of low life that way
Present version of Opera is Version/11.51

[Simon Lloyd]

Hi Guys, just to let you know there is a brand new product uploaded with everything fixed

[Simon Lloyd]

New product uploaded now with automatic redirect to spiders/bots own ip

[gigawiz]

marked as installed

I uninstalled the vb4 version and installed this one as per the instruction earlier on in the thread. This mod really is just epic and no vb forum should be without it.

EDIT - I have disabled the mod from creating new threads but it is still doing it, I have removed all the user info from the settings (user ID and forum ID) and it still posts threads which do not exist! Please help before I go totally round the bend

Thank you in advance.

gigawiz.