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.

------------------------------------------------------

Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
Donations always appreciated. :up:
Nominate MOTM if you LOVE it!

----

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

[BirdOPrey5]

What VB version are you using?

You sure you have downloaded the latest version of the mod?

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

What VB version are you using?

vBulletin 4.2.1

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

You sure you have downloaded the latest version of the mod?

Yes. Version 1.15 installed.

[kmplex]

Thank you, signed up for your forum and left a post as well.

- Brian

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

vBulletin 4.2.1



Yes. Version 1.15 installed.

Weird, working ok for me. I added code to fix this issue.


Please do this- in your admin cp, right click on the users link and choose to open in a new window.

Then try sending the codes again.

Let me know the URL in your browser on the smilie page. (you can remove your domain if you want)

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Weird, working ok for me. I added code to fix this issue.


Please do this- in your admin cp, right click on the users link and choose to open in a new window.

Then try sending the codes again.

Let me know the URL in your browser on the smilie page. (you can remove your domain if you want)

I created a new dummy user (me-test) and then selected that new member profile in AdminCP.

I don't have an option to right click "send activation codes" and open in a new tab or window from the button at the top of the AdminCP page.

The button is titled "Email Activation Codes".

Using the Firefox Web Developer: Inspector feature, i can see that this fills in and submits a form. Here's the code:

<!-- form started:49 queries executed -->
    <form id="cpform" name="cpform" method="post" action="../register.php?do=emailcode"><input id="do" type="hidden" value="emailcode" name="do"></input><input type="hidden" value="4eaa72378b27e70a445a12c6a9846659" name="adminhash"></input><input type="hidden" value="1370790095-f6d3a87b7ba0ac11ee6a32833ba6a21ce6b3649e" name="securitytoken"></input><p align="center"><input id="submit0" class="button" type="submit" accesskey="s" value="Email Activation Codes" tabindex="1"></input></p><input type="hidden" value="TESTUSER@ISPDOMAIN.COM" name="email"></input></form>
<!-- form ended: 49 queries executed -->

Notice that it is still referencing register.php although that is no longer the correct name for the file.

1. I do use email verification and have made all the edits in the two indicated phrases.

2. I do not use Facebook Connect.

[RFViet]

Hi POB5,
The mod looks interested to me, before installing this mod my question is will it effects vB update since it changes file name register.php ? and how do I uninstall if I won't use it in the future ?

[JamesUK]

installed easily and working great, thanks.
I can instantly see a big drop-off in cpu useage on our server (39% of all website traffic has been to our register.php recently!!)
I've put a dummy 'hello world' file in as register.php so the server's not serving up a load of 404s and it all seems happy
thanks again,.
James

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by RFViet

Hi POB5,
The mod looks interested to me, before installing this mod my question is will it effects vB update since it changes file name register.php ? and how do I uninstall if I won't use it in the future ?

After an upgrade you would need to rename register.php again to whatever the custom name you chose is.

If uninstalling just undo whatever manual changes you made. If you manually changed the phrases, change them back. If you manually changed the class_core.php file, change it back. Then just rename the register.php file back to normal and disable/install the mod. It should take just as many steps to install as uninstall.

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

I created a new dummy user (me-test) and then selected that new member profile in AdminCP.

I don't have an option to right click "send activation codes" and open in a new tab or window from the button at the top of the AdminCP page.

The button is titled "Email Activation Codes".

Using the Firefox Web Developer: Inspector feature, i can see that this fills in and submits a form. Here's the code:

<!-- form started:49 queries executed -->
    <form id="cpform" name="cpform" method="post" action="../register.php?do=emailcode"><input id="do" type="hidden" value="emailcode" name="do"></input><input type="hidden" value="4eaa72378b27e70a445a12c6a9846659" name="adminhash"></input><input type="hidden" value="1370790095-f6d3a87b7ba0ac11ee6a32833ba6a21ce6b3649e" name="securitytoken"></input><p align="center"><input id="submit0" class="button" type="submit" accesskey="s" value="Email Activation Codes" tabindex="1"></input></p><input type="hidden" value="TESTUSER@ISPDOMAIN.COM" name="email"></input></form>
<!-- form ended: 49 queries executed -->

Notice that it is still referencing register.php although that is no longer the correct name for the file.

1. I do use email verification and have made all the edits in the two indicated phrases.

2. I do not use Facebook Connect.

Thanks. I can confirm this is working on 4.2.1 on my site, so I assume it must be due to some conflict on yours.

In the drop down menu there should also be an option to email activation codes, can you try there too.

I'm talking about the "Quick User Links" drop down.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Thanks. I can confirm this is working on 4.2.1 on my site, so I assume it must be due to some conflict on yours.

In the drop down menu there should also be an option to email activation codes, can you try there too.

I'm talking about the "Quick User Links" drop down.

The same thing except it opens a new blank window with the url

http://myforum.com/register.php?do=requestemail&email=testuser%40isp.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmyporum.com%2Fadmincp%2Fuser.php%3Fdo%3Dedit%26u%3D10444

Again, notice it is referencing register.php, not the alternate filename.

I'm not sure what other plug-in could be interfering, or indeed what other plugin I have installed that even references register.php