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

[skippybosco]

@Floris / @TheInsaneManiac:

There is an option in the configuration of the plugin:

"What should happen if the remote connection times out when querying the new registration?" Allow Registration / Block Registration

...which will first check your local cached copy of the stop forum spam dataset (ie. you are still protected from most recently known spammers in your local cache) and then allow registration if there is no response from the stop forum spam.

As the site has had a 3x+ traffic increase from January 2009 - January 2010, scaling and DDOS attacks are always a challenge. That being said, there is much effort happening behind the scenes to increase the robustness / speed of the stop forum.

@TheInsaneManiac, the plugin you suggested can certainly be run in combination with the SFS plugin as they compliment each other well. That being said, it only prevents automated (bot) not human spammers.

[websissy]

I see that Floris and Insane Maniac and perhaps others are reporting experiencing problems with accessing the database that support this add-in. Yet, as far as I can tell, I'm not having any problems in doing so.

Can someone comment about these reported problems? Is this an issue you are working on or is it one you can't fix or is it perhaps related to loads on your current server? This is a great and very effective mod. I'd hate to see it vanish because the database we all rely on has become unreliable.

Thanks!

Oops. I see that between the time I read InsaneManiac's post and the time that I got around to replying to it, skippybosco has commented. Sorry I didn't notice that before I posted this request.

[skippybosco]

@websissy: I'm also not having the problems that folks are reporting here, but I make use of the cached database whenever possible and set the plugin to allow registration if not in local cache AND can not reach SFS server for some reason.

As I eluded to in my previous post, there are backend enhancements that are being implemented that will certainly increase the robustness of the server requests, but for the most part tuning the configuration of the mod on your local server will greatly improve the experience for both you and your users.

[pedigree]

Originally Posted by websissy

Here's a very minor bug in vbstopforumspam.php

The column-name reference in this query should be to "ipaddress" and NOT to "ip". I fixed it here. But it should be fixed in the released code too.

I thought I had fixed that, grr, its certainly posted back in the thread. Ive gone back, changed it and reuploaded the zip file again. I have no idea how that got back into the upload

[pedigree]

Originally Posted by TheInsaneManiac

Unistalled, the server seems to be down most of the time now causing no one to be able to register. This works really well!
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=183917

Im not aware of any server down time recently.

[pedigree]

Originally Posted by Floris

As of today I have had 25+ new members complain that the plugin isn't working. The stop forum spam database check step doesn't complete and registration is blocked.

I wonder if we're blocked, the database down, or the plugin needs an update or whatever?

I for now have turned off this mod so I do not lose 50 potential registrations in a day from valid members.

Are you using cURL? Are the blocks all at much the same time or scattered randomly? Maybe switch it so that it will allow registration on error?

[websissy]

None of us is perfect, Pedigree... least of all we software types. As far as I'm concerned this product is one of the most useful vbulletin hacks I've seen. I wasn't complaining... I just wanted to help improve it a bit.

Don't sweat the small stuff. You ROCK, friend!!

Thanks!

[pedigree]

Thanks but I still want to try to fix anything where I can. If the script is failing for any reason that I can control, then I really want to try to fix it.

[rsw686]

Originally Posted by skubaman

Gotta say, thanks!
In 2 days, this plugin caught 88 spammers trying to register!

I had the same result with it catching what seemed to be an extremely high number. Then I looked through the code and realized it checks the stop spam database even if the registration fields aren't validated. So if a bot submits with an invalid code or mismatch password it checks the stop spam database first. I changed the code to just let vBulletin throw the invalid registration fields error. This way I am not hitting the stop forum spam database when unneeded. All I had to do was wrap the register_addmember_process hook with if (empty($userdata->errors))

I also noticed that the cache is inserting records for the same data with a newer datestamp. However when grabbing the results from the cache it doesn't sort by date. Potentially the cached results could be around longer then the time set in the control panel. I changed this to only insert into the cache it there was not a cache hit already. This one I kind of went crazy rewriting things. pedigree if you would like I can send you the files. I want to say upfront that I am extremely picky with mods as I like to do things in a consistent way since it isn't part of the vBulletin release.

[pedigree]

rsw686 im working on your other suggestions and Ill add this one as well.