Help!!! Spammers suddenly attacking all my SMF forums!!!!

[buzinator]

Add one more ...  same story, never had a single one until two days ago.
I'll give the "Are You Human?" mod a try.

Upgrading to v2 is something I would like, and perhaps this will push me towards it a bit, but the mods I have installed will have to be tested etc, that is more work than dealing with the spam accounts for me, so far.

[Bill.Ramby]

And add another. SMF 1.1.6 then converted to 1.1.7 (happened in both). I can't convert to 2 until TP is fully ported.

[Alan G]

I'm not up for moving to 2 until the theme template system is pretty much finalised, it's not about re-writing them multiple times.

[mephisto_kur]

Updated last night.  the current count is 5 that got through before I turned on admin activation.  After that I had a queue of 12 waiting for approval this morning.


This is only after upgrading to 1.1.7.  I run incompatible mods, so 2.0 is out for us.
The bots are registering with CAPTCHA on and working.

[cheekylemon]

mine is still on 1.1.6 and I was getting spammed.

Interestingly, the captcha code never changes. Never noticed that before. All that changes is the colour of the letters. maybe that is whats causing it.

[Deprecated]

Just to answer a few questions and make a few comments...

Upgrading to 2.0 is sort of between easy and hard, in the middle area, and it depends. Some have problems and require support to complete the upgrade, others get it done in a very few minutes with no need of help.

Yeah, the template uncertainties in 2.0 are a liability, there's no denying that. There are also cosmetic bugs, annoying but harmless. And if you upgrade now, you are guaranteed of minimum of one more upgrade, probably two or more, because I'm sure the next SMF release will be another beta, not the final 2.0 release. So that's once for Beta 5 and once for 2.0 final.

[Chris Cromer]

The captcha code only changes if you have a new session. Which means that if you erase your cookies, and close your browser, you would get a different captcha code.

[Alan G]

BTW i have done a test upgrade to 2 on a medium - large forum (~200,000 posts) and it went very smoothly, a bit slow but no issues to report. I'll be waiting for final before switching purely based on not wanting to have to re-write themes multiple times. If you i was using a default theme or existing 2.0 theme i'd go for it now though.

[JaimDark]

The problem appears to be in SMF 1.1.7 because I've since updated the spam started to visit the forum and is unstoppable, especially in forums that have a greater traffic to the 200 thousand visits a day. As soon as I put 1.1.6 and it seems to have stopped the attack by spam, anyway it would be good to have a say in this SMF.

[Chris Cromer]

The problem appears to be in SMF 1.1.7 because I've since updated the spam started to visit the forum and is unstoppable, especially in forums that have a greater traffic to the 200 thousand visits a day. As soon as I put 1.1.6 and it seems to have stopped the attack by spam, anyway it would be good to have a say in this SMF.

I was using 1.1.6 when I got hit by the spammers, so it's something that is going on with the entire 1.1 line.

[cschelin]

I flipped on admin approval so that should at least stop the offensive porn from being posted (my site is an arts and crafts oriented site with a very high concentration of women).

We don't get all that many new users so it's ok for now.

Carl

[Deprecated]

I was using 1.1.6 when I got hit by the spammers, so it's something that is going on with the entire 1.1 line.

I think it's plain and simple that the 1.x line never did have adequate spam defenses, and still doesn't, and is unlikely to ever have it.

That stuff was beefed up for SMF 2.0. I'm sure the code in 1.1.x does not lend itself to being upgraded or it probably would have been. SMF 2.x is similar to SMF 1.x in a lot of ways, but it is also dissimilar in so many ways that it's difficult to downport most of the new features, so you gotta upgrade to 2.x if you want them.

The anti-spam is one of those features that makes 2.0 so nice. The PM system was totally improved too!

[Jordy3738]

I am being blasted with spammers too! I deleted 15 new accounts today and ten posts.

[catfished]

I think it's plain and simple that the 1.x line never did have adequate spam defenses, and still doesn't, and is unlikely to ever have it.

Wow!!!! I sure stirred up a hornet's nest.

I disagree that "the 1.x line never did have adequate spam defenses, and still doesn't". I have never been attacked by spam bots on any SMF forum until a couple of days ago. It's obvious that the ^%$%^$% spammers have come up with a new weapon that cracks SMF 1.x forums. I imagine it will hit MyBB and the others as well. We were just the first.

Hopefully SMF developers will come up with a fix.

[TheMovieman]

Add another one who has been hit with spam that started yesterday. I was running 1.1.6 and went into my admin area and noticed I needed to update to 1.1.7. Today I woke up to find 3 more posts and this is after changing the activation via e-mail (and I had several new accounts waiting to get activated).

[mouse92im]

Our site has the same spammer issue.. we have 1.1.6.  I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing these problems.
I'll keep my eyes on this post. 

Good luck and thanks

[Deprecated]

It could just be that spammers have started a new, higher activity worldwide spam campaign, totally a coincidence to have happened about the same time as our 1.1.7 upgrade.

[anroth]

It could just be that spammers have started a new, higher activity worldwide spam campaign, totally a coincidence to have happened about the same time as our 1.1.7 upgrade.

Yeah, I suspect the same, since the spamming attack today was the sole reason for me to see if there was an update. I used to get the SMF announcements via e-mail, but for some reason there was none this time, so it was either pruned by my spam filter (duh!) or I unsubscribed accidentially.

[johnnymax]

I was attacked by Spammers too running 1.1.6, so I tried to install "Akismet Spam Blocking" and now my board is down....

[Kjell H.]

The upgrade has not opened any new door to SMF spamming, I have 4 forums, 2 running 1.1.6 and 2 running 1.1.7. Same experience on all of them, spammers hit hard yesterday and they keep coming. Had to change to admin approval.

I am hesitant upgrading to 2.0.

It would be nice to have a formal comment from SMF on this issue.