BotBanish Firewall Client

[arminus]

But I have one more problem: Switching to German language messes up special characters (aka German Umlaute), didn't see this in previous versions. Some encoding problem on your files I guess...

You cannot view this attachment.

Same for French:

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[arminus]

And one more question: What's the difference between the free and the pro version? Didn't find anything on that on https://botbanish.com ...

[Randem]

Thanks for your QA feedback 

The difference from paid vs free is the free version will run for 90 days then revert to client side only protection. The paid version allows usage of our servers to detect, deflect and stop intrusions. The server side uses multiple clients to product the blacklists, which will aid in stopping attacks before they happen to you. If the attack happened to other in the system this information will automatically be available to the paid version to stop an attach before it begins. The free version will have to figure out each attack as it happens.

Basically the paid version is a hive mind while the free version is a single mind. The hive mind protects everyone while the single mind only protects itself. Other features such as country locators and blocking are in the paid version.

I will take a look at the language files. They are now automated and may require a different format to preserve special characters.

I changed the information about the PHP version etc... I see your point on the confusion. We will attempt to add the checker into the install package and see if that will work.

[Randem]

I have attached new language files for you to place into the language folder. There was an encoding issue in the files. Package has been updated.

[arminus]

Thanks, that works now, too. But you didn't replace the files in the full package yet... (replaced them there manually)

[Randem]

Online package now updated.

[arminus]

Nope, the patched language files are not part of https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?action=download;mod=4158;attach=287001 which I just found out after having installed this on the live server :-/

Also: Patching the .htaccess file still doesn't work reliably, I don't quite understand why I didn't see this on the test server but on the production server for the first install, it was again messed up like so:

From originally:

Code Select Expand

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.domain.de/$1 [R=301,L]

#RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Slurp
#RewriteRule ^ https://www.domain.de/ [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^yabb/(.*)$ https:///www.domain.de/$1 [R=301]
to

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RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.domain.de/$1 [R=301,L]

#

# * * * * * BotBanish BOT Start (REWRITECOND) * * * * *
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "$print" [OR,NC]

...... many lines skipped ......

# * * * * * BotBanish BOT End (REWRITECOND) * * * * *
[L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^yabb/(.*)$ https:///www.domain.de/$1 [R=301]

Now I knew what to look for, so I was able to fix the 500 quickly, but all these tests and issues are getting a bit tiresome...

Curiously enough, the 2nd install (after having manually patched the package with the language files again) did not mess up .htaccess but put the Botbanish lines in some other location in the .htaccess file ?!

[arminus]

One more observation - this appears quite often in the server error log now:

2023-05-17T19:54:56.706000 [error] [pid 12942] mod_proxy_fcgi.c(888): [Worker 192.168.42.104:443] AH01071: Got error 'PHP message: PHP Warning:  session_start(): Unable to clear session lock record in /var/www/domain/html/BotBanish/bot/Settings_Client.php on line 26PHP message: PHP Warning:  session_start(): Failed to read session data: memcached (path: proxy:11211) in /var/www/domain/html/BotBanish/bot/Settings_Client.php on line 26'

[Randem]

In regards to the .htaccess file. I had to remove the efforts to convert the old BotBanish .htaccess files (Apache 2.2) to the new format (Apache 2.4). This is why the errors were so random in nature, after fixing the comments, this showed up. As far as the language file, what is the date/time on the ones that you have in your zip file. They should be from 5/16/2023 7:33 AM, which were the updated files. I have attached a link to a version for you to look at if you would. Version 4.1.01

[arminus]

In regards to the .htaccess file.

I'll clean out the commented out stuff from our .htaccess file, maybe that will help next time.

As far as the language file

As I had said, I downloaded it from https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?action=download;mod=4158;attach=287001 - this is still the unpatched file:

You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.

Are there any other changes (apart form the Language patch) in https://randemsystems.com/data/randemsystems.com/BotBanish_Client_SMF_v4.1.01.zip at this point?

[arminus]

Lately, we observe that "something" kind of automatically changes out site's favicon to the botbanish icon, how can we prevent that? (we're on 4.1.00)

[Randem]

Any updates that we have are listed here https://randemsystems.com/support/botbanish-release-history/botbanish-4-x-release-history/

If the changes are small impact ones we do not list them individually.

As far as the favicon.ico file, it should only be installed if there is not one already present. Otherwise other errors happen in the Apache log file behind the scenes that we want to avoid.

Also there is no need to clear out the commented out lines, it has been taken care of in 4.1.00

[arminus]

As far as the favicon.ico file, it should only be installed if there is not one already present.

To clarify this: There is a custom favicon.ico file already present in the server's root dir. At some (arbitrary?) point in time, it gets replaced with Botbanish's favicon. We copy it back, some time later, it's replaced again - without us "doing anything" (i.e. reinstall or reconfigure Botbanish), so I suspect this is some kind of Botbanish cron job which replaces favicon.ico ?!

[Randem]

Sorry, we are not getting the notifications from SMF when you post. The process of replacing the favicon.ico never happens on our sites or other client sites. BotBanish does not use cron jobs. The only time that BotBanish puts a favicon.ico file there is if one does not already exists. I would look for something deleting the favicon.ico file, in that case BotBanish would place a new one there.

When an error happens due to a missing favicon.ico file, this will trigger BotBanish to place a favicon.ico file there to prevent future errors. BotBanish will not remove a favicon.ico file.

[Randem]

I do see where it might be possible ONLY under a 404 Document Error. If the system reporting is incorrect then we will replace the favicon.ico file. I put a check in there in case the system reporting is actually in error. Replace the attached file in your root folder. It will check that the error is actually real stating that there is no favicon.ico file there before BLINDLY placing a new one in the root.

[Randem]

Needed to make more changes to the file for tracking of the issue your reported. Use this file instead and allow me to see the AccessError log after it has been running a while to see exactly what your system is reporting to allow BotBanish to make this issue happen.

[arminus]

I do see where it might be possible ONLY under a 404 Document Error. If the system reporting is incorrect then we will replace the favicon.ico file.

Hmmm. I was trying to manually trigger that condition by loading a couple of bad URLs, but the replace did not happen, here's an example log excerpt (unmodified 4.1.00 BotBanish_AccessError.php):

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REDIRECT_STATUS = 404
REDIRECT_REQUEST_METHOD = GET
REDIRECT_HTTPS = on
REDIRECT_BOTBANISH_SYSTEM = SMF
REDIRECT_BOTBANISH_TYPE = 2.4.00
REDIRECT_VHOST = 4ebd341694a3d0fab476dd41c5a4c464
REDIRECT_FTPUSER = xxx.de2
REDIRECT_WNAME = $HOSTNAME
FCGI_ROLE = RESPONDER
PHP_SELF = /BotBanish/bot/Subs/BotBanish_AccessError.php
REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT = 1686639007.9355
REQUEST_TIME = 1686639007
BAN_CHECK_IP = x.x.x.x
REQUEST_URL = https://www.xxx.de/index.php1

=====================================================================

Angerufen von
    File: /var/www/xxx.de2/html/BotBanish/bot/Subs/BotBanish_AccessError.php
    Function: BotBanishLogError
    Line: 206

Angerufen von
    File: /var/www/xxx.de2/html/BotBanish/bot/Subs/BotBanish_Subs.php
    Function: BotBanishDebugBackTrace
    Line: 804


Use this file instead and allow me to see the AccessError log after it has been running a while to see exactly what your system is reporting to allow BotBanish to make this issue happen.

Does this file work with 4.1.00 or do I need to upgrade to that latest BotBanish first?

[Randem]

The only URL that would trigger the issue would need to involve favicon.ico in the URL that cannot be found. This is the only way that a 404 would be triggered for a favicon.ico file.

I can't tell from the excerpt information that you provided. It is missing much information needed to determine a finding. The redirect information as to what URL caused the redirect is missing (REDIRECT_URL) as well as other pertinent information.

Yes the file will work with version 4.1.00. I made another change in the file to help hopefully. It is attached.

Still not getting notifications from SMF on posts... 

[Randem]

Here is another modification of the file that is responsible for the replacing of the favicon.ico file. It would seem that the system may report a favicon.ico file missing from elsewhere and we are replacing the one in the root which is the one we expect to be missing and causing the error. This file handles the issue in case the error is reporting that the favicon.ico file elsewhere is missing.

[arminus]

Thanks, I just replaced BotBanish_AccessError.php, will keep you posted.