Topic: Stop Spammer

[EL34]

Add good questions and you will cut down on the number of spammers that even get to the point of needing approval by 90%

Does not stop them.
I have 8 questions and I rotate them all the time.

And here is what it looks like this morning

[Kindred]

Then they are not good questions.
Seriously, I have maybe 2-3 spammers even get to the stop spammer check in any month....   and this is over the past 3 years

30 questions,  ask 2 during registration- change them every 12-18 months

[EL34]

Then they are not good questions.
Seriously, I have maybe 2-3 spammers even get to the stop spammer check in any month....   and this is over the past 3 years

30 questions,  ask 2 during registration- change them every 12-18 months

Sounds like your forum is not being directly targeted like mine is

Look at these 4 sample questions out of 9 I have
What is wrong with these?

[@rjen]

Just a note: those questions are fine.

Another question though: how long have you had these questions in place?

My experience is that once in a while my questions get 'catalogued' and from then on are systematically broken. Assuming that these spam services have some humans employed that figure out the questions and answers and put them into a database for the bots to use...
Solution is to change the questions slightly (actually just changing one word or adding a letter in the question does the trick) and the bots a are not coming for a while (up to a few years in my case), until the question is catalogued again and I have to change the questions again...

[EL34]

Just a note: those questions are fine.

Another question though: how long have you had these questions in place?

My experience is that once in a while my questions get 'catalogued' and from then on are systematically broken. Assuming that these spam services have some humans employed that figure out the questions and answers and put them into a database for the bots to use...
Solution is to change the questions slightly (actually just changing one word or adding a letter in the question does the trick) and the bots a are not coming for a while (up to a few years in my case), until the question is catalogued again and I have to change the questions again...

Thanks, I knew they were good formulas  for questions

What I do is rotate the 9 questions around once in a while and change a letter or two in them
I just rotated them again today and changed some answers

But it will not be long again before that is no longer effective

I still think that my solution of rejecting membership if email AND user name come up in the database
You can plainly see in my screen shot that this would have stopped all those phony registrations
And there were 6 more this morning

I can fiddle with the code and test it
Has anyone had a look at the StopSpammer.php file?
Just curious where such a decision would be made in the code?
Thanks

[EL34]

I had a look at the StopSpammer.php file

This function checks the spam DB in the StopSpammer.php file

Code: [Select]

function checkDBSpammer($check_ip, $check_name, $check_mail, $test = false)

The Register.php file calls the function listed above

Code: [Select]

// Is Spammer? Then should be approval
if ($modSettings['stopspammer_enable'])
{
require_once($sourcedir . '/StopSpammer.php');
if ($regOptions['spammer'] = checkDBSpammer($user_info['ip'], $_POST['user'], $_POST['email']))
{
$regOptions['require'] = 'approval';
$modSettings['registration_method'] = 2;
if ($regOptions['spammer'] != 8)
updateSettings(array('stopspammer_count' => ++$modSettings['stopspammer_count']), true);
}
}
It looks like this is where you would reject the registration request if user name and ip are both in the spam database?
Anyone want to take a crack at modding this code?

Thanks

[EL34]

Just an update on the subject about shuffling questions and changing them every so often

Two days ago I shuffled 5 of the 9 questions
And I changed the answers

It worked for one day
Here is what it looks like this morning

[Shades.]

In Managemembers.php I cant change:

Code: [Select]

if ($context['sub_action'] == 'query' && !empty($_REQUEST['params']) && empty($_POST))to

Code: [Select]

if ($context['sub_action'] == 'query' && !empty($_REQUEST['params']) && (empty($_POST) || ((isset($_POST['spammers_checks']) || isset($_POST['spammers_report'])) && !empty($_POST['delete']))))
Heres that section in my Managemembers.php

Code: [Select]

if ($context['sub_action'] == 'query' && empty($_POST))
{
if (!empty($_REQUEST['params']))
{
$_POST += safe_unserialize(base64_decode($_REQUEST['params']));
}
elseif ($context['browser']['is_ie'] && !empty($_SESSION['params']))
{
$_POST += $_SESSION['params'];
unset($_SESSION['params']);
}
}

// Check input after a member search has been submitted.
if ($context['sub_action'] == 'query')

[wwwserfer]

Has anyone encountered these errors?



How to adapt the function to replace the deprecated one?
SMF 2.1 RC 3
PHP 7.3

[Kindred]

Mod needs to be redesognedfor php 7.3

[wwwserfer]

Mod needs to be redesognedfor php 7.3

I understood. because of this I am interested. just tried to remake according to templates, found in various FAQs - unsuccessfully))

[snoopy_virtual]

Mod needs to be redesognedfor php 7.3

I know and the problem is I continue being too busy with other things to do it myself.

Luckily I have found a friend who is willing to take the mod in his hands and do all the updates needed.

I have already asked the SMF Customization Team to add him as "co-author" so he can manage the mod properly.

I hope all of you will have good news soon.

Cheers

[Matthias]

I have updated this mod:

- Fixed error message "Undefined index: stopspammer_faildb_sub"
- Changes to make the installation work for version 2.0.17
- Changes to make the mod work with php 7.3
- Fixed: The "Check this member" link was visible to everyone in their own profile. Now it is only visible for moderators
- Added css class to the buttons
- Changed text string "Check these members" to "Check Selected Members"
- Changed text string "Report these members" to "Report Selected Members"

https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1547

[pocttopus]

- Changes to make the installation work for version 2.0.17

It's not listed 2.0.17 version in compatible list.
So, is this mod working on 2.1rc3?

[shadav]

- Changes to make the installation work for version 2.0.17

It's not listed 2.0.17 version in compatible list.
So, is this mod working on 2.1rc3?

since the current version of smf is 2.0.18, they can't mark past versions as working only current versions can be marked on the mod site as working

Matthias, will you be updating it to work with php 7.4?
and I'm not sure if this mod also had the issue with users that use ipv 6 like httpbl has

[Matthias]

It works for 2.0.15 - 2.0.18
I have tested it with php 7.3, but will have a look with 7.4
I haven't tested it with IPv6

[SugarD-x]

Personally the top three things that I'm waiting for, (which would be absolutely epic and much appreciated), would be PHP 7.4 (and eventually 8.0) support, IPv6 support, (if not already working), and SMF 2.1 support. That's all that is stopping me from using this wonderful mod again, which has been a godsend over the years in stopping spam on my forums. There aren't any other mods that come close to it, but when coupled with it, the anti-spam capabilities definitely become unstoppable. Right now there isn't really anything available for SMF 2.1, so it'd be awesome if this mod became #1 on that list again.

[shadav]

Personally the top three things that I'm waiting for, (which would be absolutely epic and much appreciated), would be PHP 7.4 (and eventually 8.0) support, IPv6 support, (if not already working), and SMF 2.1 support. That's all that is stopping me from using this wonderful mod again, which has been a godsend over the years in stopping spam on my forums. There aren't any other mods that come close to it, but when coupled with it, the anti-spam capabilities definitely become unstoppable. Right now there isn't really anything available for SMF 2.1, so it'd be awesome if this mod became #1 on that list again.

+100 those are what's stopping me from using this and a few other mods (well not the 2.1), especially the ipv6 issue as I accidently locked myself out of all of my forums  because apparently one day I just end up with ipv6 out of no where 
i mean sure I myself can disable it on my pc but how many of my users really would know how to do that? So I'm leery to reinstall any of these mods until then.

[Onepoint]

How do I uninstall the mod when it warns of errors?

I have not had any issue with it until we just updated to 2.0.18

I am running stop spammer 2.3.9

Then registration was broken and giving errors,   I searched that and found was an issue as far back as 2.0.15. After reading the fix and modding files to to no avail, I want to just uninstall the mod, update SMF and reinstall with the new version if it will work.

The errors list Action   Description
*   1.   Execute Modification   ./Sources/ManageRegistration.php -Test failed
   
*   2.   Execute Modification   ./Sources/ManageMembers.php - Test failed

Any direction on how to proceed would be appreciated.

[SugarD-x]

How do I uninstall the mod when it warns of errors?

I have not had any issue with it until we just updated to 2.0.18

I am running stop spammer 2.3.9

Then registration was broken and giving errors,   I searched that and found was an issue as far back as 2.0.15. After reading the fix and modding files to to no avail, I want to just uninstall the mod, update SMF and reinstall with the new version if it will work.

The errors list Action   Description
*   1.   Execute Modification   ./Sources/ManageRegistration.php -Test failed
   
*   2.   Execute Modification   ./Sources/ManageMembers.php - Test failed

Any direction on how to proceed would be appreciated.

Take a look at the installation instructions to get an idea of what was modified, and just do the reverse before having the mod uninstall. Make sure you also don't have other mods that applied themselves over those sections, as that could also cause the issue you are having.