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.

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

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

[ProFifaLeagues]

Joe as always a Superb mod mate thank you! Will be using this very soon

[bzcomputers]

Just to let you know the class_bootstrap.php lines to edit if using Facebook Connect are the same for all of vB 4.2.x.

Lines #237 & #294.

[sadiq6210]

I will try it.
Installed + nominated

Thanks Joe

[RedTurtle]

Joe, you're always coming up with amazing mods that help the community.

Thank you for everything that you do -- it doesn't go unnoticed!

[datoneer]

It's working thanks joe! Great mod, installed nominated

[lazytown]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

.....
Makes it REALLY hard to automate a response!

This is an awesome mod, and I might install it. However, if enough forums install it, it might easily be bypassed. Spam software can be changed to just search any page's html for the word "register" and the associated link, and use that url instead of the hard-coded one they use now. Then our next weapon/step would be to obfuscate the link (using javascript, etc), and then the spammers would eventually find a way to bypass that, but not as easily. However, the more difficult we make it the better, and as long as everyone isn't using this, it might last quite a while.

I had a question about using google analytics funnels/goals to track registration completion. Register.php is in my goal path (it's the trigger), and I think this mod would permanently break analytics being able to track percentage of registration completions (attempts vs success, etc). However, it's still probably worth it.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by vissa

This is an awesome mod, and I might install it. However, if enough forums install it, it might easily be bypassed. Spam software can be changed to just search any page's html for the word "register" and the associated link

I'm well aware of the capabilities of the auto-spam software. The part you might have missed is, each person who installs this Mod gives the register page a different name. It can be anything. And it will likely be as unique as the person installing it. It may or may not have the word "register" in it somehow.

If a spambot administrator wants to manually find the register page, he/she can do so like any legitimate human can. But as I explained, the auto-spam programs don't inform of failed registrations or the reason for them. And while typically hitting 1000s of sites each session, they don't take any time trying to discover if registrations fail to start with. Auto-spamming is all about automation and speed.

I accurately described this Mod as a "speed bump." But I also accurately explained why it's a better speed bump than most.

[smirkley]

Installed, and Thank You.

I am in the process of testing this out, and I noticed while watching whos online.

While the whos online shows several hits to the new registration filename, I suspect these are just bots hitting the links. And even though it shows as unknown location (can this be changed?), I am wondering that this mod is specifically for those registration bots with register.php built in, if you BOP5 have noticed that some of those bots look for the login phrase link instead of just hitting the filename?

Sorry if this is a redundant question, but if I missed it my fault.

Thanks again.

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by smirkley

Installed, and Thank You.

I am in the process of testing this out, and I noticed while watching whos online.

While the whos online shows several hits to the new registration filename, I suspect these are just bots hitting the links. And even though it shows as unknown location (can this be changed?), I am wondering that this mod is specifically for those registration bots with register.php built in, if you BOP5 have noticed that some of those bots look for the login phrase link instead of just hitting the filename?

Sorry if this is a redundant question, but if I missed it my fault.

Thanks again.

Good catch! Updated to version 1.1.0 to fix the Who's Online issue. It will now say "Registering."

[chikuru]

Do you have vb3.8 version of this? Thank you!