Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Multiple account login detector (AE Detector)

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Same plug-in found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=107566

There are no differences as this plug-in works with both 3.5 and 3.6 versions of vBulletin.

If you are like me and migrated from .threads, a common modification was an "AE detector", a simple mod that saved a cookie of a history of ids logged into on your site. If someone logged into more than one account, you got a PM letting you know that your site was being accessed from multiple accounts.

Over the years this was very helpful in identifying users who were posting under multiple accounts (alter-egos!) and users who would return after being banned.

You might be wondering why I don't use the vbcookie call - well, thats because on logout all vB cookies are cleared, so we need to store a cookie that is not effected by the login/logout process.

New Installation
1. Add New Product with attached XML
2. Go to vBulletin Options -> AE Multiple Login Detection Settings and set your specific settings.

Time to install: Easy - 2 minutes.

Upgrade
If you installed this as a Plug-in manually, you can delete that plugin and install this Product, just make sure to go into the Options and set them accordingly.

I hope you find this useful and will click INSTALL if you use it; should it prove useful to enough people I can look at making this installation more automated without the need for edits and an Admin Options page.

To upgrade you will want to reimport this XML file and edit your options accordingly.

1.0.3
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. Added a check to ensure that users weren't deleted when reporting violations
. added htmlspecialchars_uni call to username

Note: I am unable to get the call to construct_phrase with $vbphrase['multiplelogin_alert'] to work reliably, as such the $message variable is still set manually inside the plug-in and not via the phrase. If anyone has an idea of why this might not always work, I'm all ears.

1.0.2
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. Updated to include exclusion groups, users
. Changed so PM is sent by ae sender id

1.0.1
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. Released as a Product (thank you PHPGeek2k3 for your help)
. Added option to post to a forum versus send a PM (or both)
. All settings moved into Admin Option

1.0.0
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Initial release.

[b6gm6n]

did u know... that this mod is probebley my most useful and important addition to my forums...cheers

-b6

[YabbaDabba]

BUGS?

1 - Please move all the phrases into the Phrase library

2 - Fix the custom phrase bugs
I ended up having to edit the XML file to change phrases there.

3 - Have Report threads indexed in search properly
I have reports sent to a dedicated Mod-only forum with "Index New Posts in Search Engine" set to Y. Usernames are not found when searching this dedicated forum unless I go into admincp and reindex.

4 - Have report threads update the post counts properly
The Bot that generates these threads always has a "0" post count.

5 - Some unintended interaction between PM and thread generation
Had both PM and thread generation set to Y. Everything worked fine for weeks. Changed PM option to N. Threads no longer generated. This was reported as a problem on the AED for 3.5 thread also.


RECOMMEND ADDING A USE TIP TO YOUR ADMIN POST:
1 - Set up a bot account to be the author of any AED threads and PMs.
This will save people a lot of grief as otherwise the admin IP shows up associated with all the overlapping accounts.


POSSIBLE ENHANCEMENTS

1 - Skip user overlaps that have been previously reported
I realize that detecting this on the user's machine is unreliable for cookies, especially if the perp is using different computers and what not. Perhaps AED can detect if an identical post in an existing thread already exists? Or by comparing the userID's in the cookie to a logfile of past matches on the server?

2 - Automatically change new overlapping user's group assignment based on prior account's group
E.g., move new account "B" into usergroup "3" if earlier account "A" is in usergroup "2" (e.g., if member account A is in a "banned" group).

3 - Option to flush cookies
Or possibly an option to change the cookie domain; or add a trigger date to the cookie.
If a forum resets userID's, this plugin becomes worse than useless.

4 - Option to add current IP's to PM/thread for reported overlaps.

5 - Option to force acceptance of cookie
As pointed out by another user on the AED 3.5 thread, troublemakers with 1/2 a brain can get around this utility. Forcing cookie use (an option to deny access if cookie not present/written and/or detecting matching accounts against the logfile) would not affect most members at all.

6 - Create username variables for all cases
It would be nice to have variables for each reported username in both linked and unlinked states as well as for "all" user names.

[brvheart]

Well, I installed as this was one of the most useful that I used in 3.5.x but it does not work on my 3.6.1 board....it does not generate a PM or start a new thread....

[Wachtmeister]

Well, i used this hack and it is still one of my favoured, but since today it does not work I've upgraded to vb362 and don't get messages if users share their login. Is there a way how i can test the functionality?

[jyajay]

I do have v3.6.2 and this hack is running smoothly.

[MPDev]

Also running 3.62 with no problems....

[brvheart]

I must have a conflicting hack installed or something as this is not working for me at all

[teedizz]

Originally Posted by brvheart

Well, I installed as this was one of the most useful that I used in 3.5.x but it does not work on my 3.6.1 board....it does not generate a PM or start a new thread....

Im running 3.6.2 & im having the same exact problem.

[mrkhm]

kudos

[MPDev]

If for some reason your board changes userids, please refer to the second post:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....79&postcount=2