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

[BarryW]

Originally Posted by ddmobley

... I would prefer StopForumSpam.com to modify their username searches to only return exact matches, otherwise the username search becomes nearly useless.

Thanks for your reply. I've learnt a lot about this tool today. I like the tool but I agree about modifying the username searches. My spam log has already rejected a few potential members.

Barry

[Wired1]

Originally Posted by ddmobley

You have to be careful of the username searches. StopForumSpam.com searches for partial matches to username searches, which can result in high false positives. Your user "Andrew" did return a hit on StopForumSpam.com, but it also turned up false positives for other usernames that include the phrase "andrew" in it, even email addresses. I would prefer StopForumSpam.com to modify their username searches to only return exact matches, otherwise the username search becomes nearly useless.

When this mod searches their database, it's different than the general search on the website. I believe it already only searches for exact matches, whereas the search on their website always searches all fields.

[David Bott]

Greetings all...

Interesting plug-in and have it running on AVSForum at this time.

Seeing we get 300+ new registrations a day on the site, I was wondering if their is a way to only log the rejections? You know, the log entries like "Result on field email - kokja@ua.fm - Spammer and rejected by policy"

Thank you kindly for your help and the very nice addition.

[Wired1]

Probably, but it's a good thing to have both available. When looking at the logs, you can see where spammers attempt various login combos, and which ones get rejected vs. accepted.

Example: They're attempting to create a login by using a specific IP / username combo, but they keep changing the email address. 3 out of 30 email addresses aren't blocked, and all attempted within a 5 minute period. It's a safe bet those 3 are spammer accounts, and you can report them to the list.

[abrecher]

Originally Posted by BarryW

EDIT: I have just found out that usernames can be removed from the search.

How can one do that please ?

[rrudeboy]

installed it and hoping it'll work.... anyway to test without being banned :}

[pedigree]

the site does exact matches only but is case insenstive.

Originally Posted by Wired1

When this mod searches their database, it's different than the general search on the website. I believe it already only searches for exact matches, whereas the search on their website always searches all fields.

Spot on

again, as the thread is getting long and I know from these posts that people arent reading it in completion

vBulletin accepts the form, sanity checks it
Passes control to the mod. The mod does tests against the remote database and if all tests come back negative, passes control back to vBulletin for its checks, captcha, dup usernames etc.

If there are multiple logs, its because the mod has passed it and vbulletin has rejected it. There is nothing that I can do about other than attempt to supress duplicate log entries, but then you dont see the whole picture.

[pedigree]

Originally Posted by abrecher

How can one do that please ?

Look at the mod options

[pedigree]

Originally Posted by David Bott

Greetings all...

Interesting plug-in and have it running on AVSForum at this time.

Seeing we get 300+ new registrations a day on the site, I was wondering if their is a way to only log the rejections? You know, the log entries like "Result on field email - kokja@ua.fm - Spammer and rejected by policy"

Thank you kindly for your help and the very nice addition.

Thanks.

You can edit the php and comment out the line near the bottom that adds the log entries that you dont want to see.

[BarryW]

Originally Posted by abrecher

How can one do that please ?

Goto: -

AdminCP/vBulletinOptions/vbStopForumSpam

Barry