Miscellaneous Hacks - Ban Spiders by User Agent

What this mod does
With this mod you can enter User Agents to watch or ban, you can also recieve emails or have an Output.txt created and updated with time and date of visits. It doesn't just have to be spiders, you can watch, log or ban any useragent!

How to install
Simply import the product ban_spider, the mod is active by default but none of the other options are turned on.

What is a UserAgent?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent

Understanding a UserAgent string
http://user-agent-string.info/parse

Genuine User Getting Blocked?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=105

Tools to help
http://whatsmyuseragent.com/SwitchingUserAgents.asp
http://www.botsvsbrowsers.com/SimulateUserAgent.asp

FAQ
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=137

What's a bot?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spambot

How do i ban a bot?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=318
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....7&postcount=51

Where's output.txt located?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=216

Bad bot lists
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=259
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=224
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=281

VB4.x Version of Ban Spiders By User Agent

Tested on vb3.7.x, vB3.8.x but should work on any version.

__________________________________________________ __________________
Special thanks to:
Lior
KH99
BoP5
for helping me sort out a few issues

...and beta testers
ForceHSS (Special thanks to Force for latest testing)
ozzy47
GreyHost

If you use this please mark as INSTALLED

History
9th June 2011 Orginal xml added
12th June 2011 Added both email notification and text file logging
22nd June 2011 Version 2.0.0, Added create thread on activity

1. Added match facility you can now use something like Yandex and it will match MOZILLA/5.0 (COMPATIBLE; YANDEXBOT/3.0; +HTTP://YANDEX.COM/BOTS)
2. Added clickable link to visited thread

22nd September 2011 added user redirect url selection
08th October Beta testing started for thread creation.
20th October Beta testing started for emailing.
21st October Beta testing complete Ver 3.0.0 uploaded
29th October minor fix added to cope with empty userid on thread creation
30th October Beta testing automatic redirection to spiders/bots IP
31st October New xml uploaded with automatic redirect to IP
25th November Minor fix for blank forumid fixed
26th November 2011 Fixed version check & create thread Off by default
17th December 2014 Version 3.1.0 uploaded, Extra logging and statistics added by Ozzy47 (Chris)
18th December 2014 Version 3.1.2 uploaded, due to rogue process from other mod
18th December 2014 Version 3.1.3 uploaded, due to previous one being VB4 mistakingly uploaded

The Bad Bots list is now included in the product
Please prune out all those that you wish to be able to see your site (i suggest you definately prune out "DA" and "Custo" :

Support will now only be given to those who have this mod marked as INSTALLED

[Simon Lloyd]

Sure, are you sure you want to create threads? you'd get soooooo many of them, remember i added the thread making and logging for test purposes so folk could see that it was working for their selected spiders are being dealt with.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

Sure, are you sure you want to create threads? you'd get soooooo many of them, remember i added the thread making and logging for test purposes so folk could see that it was working for their selected spiders are being dealt with.

Yes I have had this Mod working for so long, the really bad spiders like Baidu have stopped visiting completely. This Mod generated only 88 threads yesterday. I plan to turn the thread making feature on and off periodically, just for occasional monitoring purposes.

The IPs in the post would be great, if it's not too difficult and if you please.

Edit: It would be nice too if we could make it post everything in the same thread in addition to the option of creating a new topic for each bot.

[Simon Lloyd]

Ok, if you can wait until next week as i've promised my wife that i'll give the computer a rest for a week (other than important stuff) so i'll get to it after then

[Simon Lloyd]

@Max Taxable for now (just because i can't make you wait ) go to admincp>plugins & products>Plugin Manager find the Ban Spiders mod's plugins and look for Post UA Activity to thread and replace all of the code you see there for this

PHP Code:

if ($vbulletin->options['bsactive'] AND $vbulletin->options['bs_report_createthread'])
{
$agentip = strtoupper($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
$DateOfRequest = date('m-d-Y H:i:s');
$user_agent1 = strtoupper($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);
$bots1 = explode("\r\n", $vbulletin->options['bs_sel_list']); 
$n = sizeof($bots1);
for ($i=0;$i<$n;$i++) {
if (stristr($user_agent1,$bots1[$i])) 
{
    // Backend Files
    require_once('./global.php');
    require_once('./includes/class_dm.php');
    require_once('./includes/class_dm_threadpost.php');
    require_once('./includes/functions_databuild.php');

$threaddm =& datamanager_init('Thread_FirstPost', $vbulletin, ERRTYPE_ARRAY, 'threadpost');
$threadinfo = array();
$vboptions =& $vbulletin->options;
$username = $vbulletin->userinfo['username']; 
$forumid = $vbulletin->options['bs_report_forumid']; 
$foruminfo = fetch_foruminfo($foruminfo['forumid']);
$title = "Activity from Bot No. $i ($bots1[$i]) in your list";   
$userid = $vbulletin->options['bs_report_userthread'];
if ($userid == '')
{
  $userid=1;
}
if ($forumid =='')
{
exit;
}
$pagetext = "[b]Date and Time:[/b] $DateOfRequest\n[b]Associated Username (if any): [/b]$username\n[b]Matched bots[$i]:[/b] $bots1[$i] \n[b]With User Agent:[/b] $user_agent1\n\n[b]Their IP:[/b]$agentip\n\n[b]They visited:[/b]\n[url]$_SERVER[SERVER_NAME]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI][/url]\n\n"; 
$posticon = $vbulletin->options['subthread_posticon'];
$allowsmilie = '1';
$visible = '1';

$threaddm->set_info('forum', $foruminfo);
$threaddm->set_info('thread', $threadinfo);
$threaddm->setr('forumid', $forumid);
$threaddm->setr('userid', $userid);
$threaddm->setr('pagetext', $pagetext);
$threaddm->setr('title', $title);
$threaddm->set('iconid', $posticon);
$threaddm->set('allowsmilie', $allowsmilie);
$threaddm->set('visible', $visible);

 // Lets see what happens if we save the page
$threaddm->pre_save();
if(count($threaddm->errors) < 1) {
    // Basically if the page will save without errors then let do it for real this time
    $threadid = $threaddm->save();
    unset($threaddm);
    build_thread_counters($threaddm);
    build_forum_counters($forumid);
    build_forum_counters($threadinfo['forumid']);
   // unset($threaddm);
} else {
    // There was errors in the practice run, so lets display them
    var_dump ($threaddm->errors);
}
 
 }
 }
} 


You'll now get their ip in the thread thats created

The posting to same thread for each bot will require queries to the database, we'd have to add a column to store thread id's against bot names...etc, it could work out kinda messy and resource expensive, but, i'll still look in to it!

[Max Taxable]

Thanks Simon! I was content to wait though.

[ChiNa]

Hi Simon, Can you maybe give us a link to some newer bad behavior bots.
I did check your links for the Bad Bots, I just dont know if you already have banned those bots in the links, and how to bann a bot using a webhost, which says "dreamhost.com" fake google?
But it will not make problems for me to bann a REAL hosting company?

Waiting for a reply befor I install it! Thank you

[Simon Lloyd]

Read the links properly, i have linked you to the "how do i ban a bot?" and links to some maintained lists, and as i have said repeatedly banning bots/spiders/UAs is a personal thing

[Max Taxable]

Simon...

Is there a quick line of code we can add that captures User Agent info as well as IP, and includes this info in the email?

[Simon Lloyd]

Isn't it already included in an email?

This will show the useragent:
With User Agent: $user_agent1\n\

Add it anywhere under Matched Bots in the email message, should be good, i dont have time right now to check it properly as i've been up 21 hours now and desperately need sleep!

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

Isn't it already included in an email?

This will show the useragent:
With User Agent: $user_agent1\n\

Add it anywhere under Matched Bots in the email message, should be good, i dont have time right now to check it properly as i've been up 21 hours now and desperately need sleep!

It's not but I'll play around with this and let you know what works. Thanks for the quick response.