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

[SFertitta72]

Please bear with the noob here

I installed this into VB 3..6.10. Seems to be ok, but there is no usergroup listed as vbStopForumSpam Permissions. Was I supposed to put this in, or did I miss something?

Also, where do I find the log?

Thanks for you help. :up:

**Edit**
I just realized that this killed my registration process. I will take a screen shot and post it showing the errors. I must have screwed something up.

Gotta remember NOT to drink vodka and install mods to my site :-)

[pedigree]

Yes please do send me a link to the screenshot so that I can look at why its killing your reg.

If you cant find the log, then I suspect that you havent uploaded the files required for the mod

[ChaosBurnt]

Brilliant idea, I've been using their database for a while now and having to remember to update the blocked IP's and emails was getting hard to remember. This will ease some off the pressure on us to keep the address lists up to date, thank you.
I only found out about this mod as it's linked to from vBulletin.com on this post
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showp...&postcount=157
, that doesn't happen too often

[douffle]

Originally Posted by pedigree

Try this, open includes\functions_vbsfs.php, go to line 71 and change

$sql = "SELECT DATEDIFF(NOW(), '" . $lastseen . "') AS DAYS;";

to

$sql = "SELECT DATEDIFF(NOW(), '" . $lastseen . "') AS DAYS";

I made the changes to both forums but it did not resolve the problem.
Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

[pedigree]

the DATEDIFF function is in mySQL as of version 4.1.1. You are using 4.0.x which has support discontinued as of Sept 2006. Time to upgrade??

I will update the XML so that the plugin doesnt install when the SQL version is under 4.1.1

[bitwise2000]

Thanks pedigree. Excellent mod. Nabbed 30 dirty spammers in the first 12 hours. Can't wait for the submit feature.

[douffle]

Originally Posted by pedigree

the DATEDIFF function is in mySQL as of version 4.1.1. You are using 4.0.x which has support discontinued as of Sept 2006. Time to upgrade??

I will update the XML so that the plugin doesnt install when the SQL version is under 4.1.1

As mentioned in my previous post, I have MySQL 4 on one site but I have MySQL 5 on the other site and it has the same problem with the database errors.

[Wired1]

FYI, www.stopforumspam.com was down for a while due to the bandwidth being exceeded.

Also, add a space after the // (like below) to find the edit location (which is on line 522 on v3.7.3 PL1)

// QUICK LINKS SECTION

Pedigree, I messed around w/ your code snippet for a bit, and made it into a plugin. No edit needed, wahoo!

It puts the box at the end of the first column. One plugin is for JUST the USER ID of 1, the other is for the admin usergroup (6 by default). Looking at it more, it needs some tweaking to use the default themes, but otherwise it works fine. Having this built into the "delete as spam" would be awesome. IIRC, someone has already suggested this, right?

[pedigree]

yeah, you dont want to know how much bandwidth the server used last month. Its something that were looking at addressing but I guess the site is just becoming more popular.

Thanks, I was going to make this a plugin as well but it was late Ill see how it can be integrated into the "delete as spam" . Im guessing a "delete as spam and submit spammer to stopforumspam.com" would be better but not so easy on the eye

[pedigree]

I was wondering how people would react to me including some of the One Touch Spam Ban and Cleanup util into this (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=156444). The author sadly passed away in a tragic caving accident and it would be a shame to see something just dispear into the ether when it could be included in vbStopForumSpam in such a useful manner as to submit as well as cleanup.