Miscellaneous Hacks - Stop the Registration Bots

Control your vBulletin forum registration process and stop the registration bots.

This mod will check the the time it takes for a vBulletin registration form to be submitted. If the form is submitted faster then humanly possible, the registration will be denied and the admin contact will be emailed about the event. The time is settable

We will start the registration on the forum rules page in two ways. First we will add a custom hidden field with a hash. Second we will insert a randomly named hidden field with a random value. This should make it a bit difficult to program a bot since the field names on all sites will be different as well as the values.

We will use a second set of random hidden fields on the form page as well to add to the confusion.

Time stamps to check the time spent on registration submission are stored in a DB table and private.

A registration will have to come through the Rules page and the form. Every Site will be different.

Installation is very easy.

There are two templates to edit.
One database table is added.
Three hooks are utilized.
Includes uninstall code.
Adds to vBulletin options.
Set time frame option.
Includes Phrases.
Sends Mail to Admin.
No files to upload.
XML product install.
Instructions attached in zip.

Demo usage and view source at http://www.riderinfo.com/

Compatibility
This hack is known to work on vBulletin 3.6.11 PL1 and will likely work back a few versions in the 3.6.x vBulletin series. Of course it works on 3.7.x as posted too.

HISTORY
1.2.2
added admin email on/off setting
moved hook code to files to reduce overhead.
1.2.1
Added Enable/Disable setting.
Fixed coppa includes file probem
Added file upload instructions to readme file.
1.2.0
Added JS timer to registration button.
Added enable/diable for email.
Removed ACP settings for random fields on rules and reg form pages and automated.
Reworded Pharses in ACP.
Recoded rules form and reg form edits.
Renamed variables for better code following.
Added more DB fields per user reg for tracking random automation.
New Hook on start_registration for functions.
Added new functions file. includes/stb_functions.php.
1.0.3
Changed input user name on rules form to random named hidden field with hash value.
Removed \n chars from email phrases.
All changes to registration are transparent to the folks registering.
Renamed DB username field to hash.
New hook on register_signup.
1.0.2
Added new Pre Reg Name hidden field to register form edits and ACP.
Added code to deal transparently with user deciding to change name after pre submitting it.
1.0.1
Fixed typo, changed 36000 to 3600 in product file.
1.0.0
Original Release.

[CorneliusW]

I get this message "You have left a required field blank." when going to register page. http://ps4forum.net/register.php is the page. I have followed the instructions and modified the templates as needed.

[Piggo]

Originally Posted by JohnSG

Is there a version for 4.x

I would like to know the same.
I think I prefer this method to the SPAM-O-Matic approach.


Added:
Okay, there is version for vb 4+:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=244746

[ApexSpeed]

Any way to test this to see if it's working properly? I haven't gotten any e-mail notices yet, and I am still seeing registrations get blocked through the logs from vbStopForumSpam. It seems as if it is still allowing bots to come through, or would the vbStopForumSpam block those users out before this hack would ever have a chance to function?

[noppid]

Originally Posted by ApexSpeed

Any way to test this to see if it's working properly? I haven't gotten any e-mail notices yet, and I am still seeing registrations get blocked through the logs from vbStopForumSpam. It seems as if it is still allowing bots to come through, or would the vbStopForumSpam block those users out before this hack would ever have a chance to function?

You can read the source code on each page to see it is there for one.
You really should register a test user to verify registration works.
Email verification should tell you that something happened.
I don't know about the mod you mentioned.

[AtoZ]

Originally Posted by Ata123

Had the issue again, I removed the manual addition of

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8">

from both templates again and instead changed this option to "No":

Vbulletin Options -> Cookies and HTTP Header Options -> Send Internet Explorer 7 Compatibility Header: [x] NO

Thank you for sharing this. I'm testing it and hope this fixes the problem for me as well.