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

[jbird310]

This mod is awesome! I was having a problem with spam bots signing up and posting links 10-20 times a day, but after installing this mod, I haven't had ONE spam bot registration in over 3 months. Amazing!!!!

I also combined it with another hack to moderate any post with [URL] in it if the user has less than 5 posts. This double defense works like a charm!!

[chrisvonc]

Thank you for this mod. It seems like the spambots kicked it into high gear last week because I suddenly started seeing 100's of accounts being created. I installed it last night and not even 24 hours later, its blocked over 500 spam accounts. I had anohter 10 that got through but I caught them with my additional required question.

The only thing on my personal wish list for this would be the ability to add a trigger to block these when a certain entry is made in that question field.

Again thank you very much!

[AndyN]

I have installed this mod on our forum due to the recent increase in spammers - and is working great. Question: any links to code to quickly submit spammers that get through to stopforumspam? thanks.

[tarot]

Thank you for your work, this has saved the day

[Suiram]

Originally Posted by pedigree

It seems that someone has written a script of some sort that go through every IP in the database, user, posts, I dont know, but some forums have hit the database 80,000 times in a couple of hours.

This has resulted in perm bans from the API for abuse.

Please dont abuse the API. If you require more than 5000 queries a day, ask us first.

Originally Posted by snoopytas

ping www.stopforumspam.com
Ping request could not find host www.stopforumspam.com. Please check the name and try again.

Looks bad.

the perfect solution would be to not have to rely on any 3rd party for the database. why not have an option to have forum owners create and use their own database? (since their forum already uses one, it's a no brainer) whilst some would prefer to have a frequently updated "general" database as it is now, you could still import a new list of usernames/ip's/email addresses each week/month if you wanted. or at least have two versions. one as it is, and the other 99% the same except that it would use your own servers/database.

[GlowHost.com]

Originally Posted by Suiram

the perfect solution would be to not have to rely on any 3rd party for the database. why not have an option to have forum owners create and use their own database? (since their forum already uses one, it's a no brainer) whilst some would prefer to have a frequently updated "general" database as it is now, you could still import a new list of usernames/ip's/email addresses each week/month if you wanted. or at least have two versions. one as it is, and the other 99% the same except that it would use your own servers/database.

Someone doesn't understand the idea behind this mod I guess.

So today, you see a new spammer on your forum, then you ban him, and he is in your internal database. Tomorrow, he changes his post, username, and IP, and spams your board again. Then you ban him manually again. And you do this every day. Maybe several times per day.

You probably do not need this mod if you do not understand why it is so useful or how spam works, in general. There is absolutely no question that this type of service must rely on a 3rd party database and an internal DB is going to be 100% useless for almost every site out there.

[Suiram]

Originally Posted by GlowHost.com

Someone doesn't understand the idea behind this mod I guess.

So today, you see a new spammer on your forum, then you ban him, and he is in your internal database. Tomorrow, he changes his post, username, and IP, and spams your board again. Then you ban him manually again. And you do this every day. Maybe several times per day.

You probably do not need this mod if you do not understand why it is so useful or how spam works, in general. There is absolutely no question that this type of service must rely on a 3rd party database and an internal DB is going to be 100% useless for almost every site out there.

i understand perfectly. it's about control. i did say you could have it on a user's forum but still get updates from a centrally maintained database. the point IS, the site goes down or shuts down bit by bit and the mod is useless too. what i'm suggesting is that we not have to rely on a 3rd party. and do you think some jerks don't submit genuine emails and such just for fun? and i did not look at the names in the list but does it mean if some spammer uses John or any other real and popular name it's blacklisted?

whatever man, you rage against the machine. whilst the site now (still) offers free "support", how long will it last? and not just how long, but why rely on it hosting this "valuable" database?

again, you don't understand. it could work just like it does now except the forum also keeps a local database that gets daily/weekly updates.

[Rik Brown]

Fantastic mod! Works great. Thanks. -- Rik

[zaine68]

Thanks for the mod, it seems to work a treat but either I've missed it some where in the install or the mod replies but I cant find the log file. Its not listed under Stats and Logs. I've uploaded everything in the upload folder as instructed to do and made sure they got the right permissions too. Any ideas? Forum is 3.8.2 at present.

Cheers, Chris

[ETDC]

Don't forget folks, the efficiency of this mod and the database relies on you submitting manually to SFS all those spammers who aren't in the database.