My forum/site has been compromised?

[uncleusta]

Hi,

So, I haven't issues with my site for the entire year that has been up until I recently installed SMF. I logged into the Google Search Console to see if there are any issues as I do so often to keep an eye on any potential issues and to my surprise, I see this;







I noticed a bunch of spam/bot accounts had registered so I deleted them as well as the few posts they made with spam links to suspicious/spam websites.  I've also improved the registration process (e-mail validation, answer questions, highest setting of image verification).

Is that all there is to it? How do I double check to see my site/forum isn't being hijacked by those links seen in the image?

Anyone else have a similar issue or any advice?

Thanks.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

We all (that is, any forum admin and this site as well) have a problem with spammers. All you can do is find ways to slow them down, at best even stop them. Verification questions seem to work fairly well, if you set up a good sized pool of questions and only ask a couple at a time.

[Kindred]

you see that class="bbc_link" (and the fact that it is showing up in the rss feed...?

that means that there is no compromise in this case... just spammers posting links in messages.

delete the messages, delete the accounts....   and add questions and/or other methods to stop them from registering.

[uncleusta]

you see that class="bbc_link" (and the fact that it is showing up in the rss feed...?

that means that there is no compromise in this case... just spammers posting links in messages.

delete the messages, delete the accounts....   and add questions and/or other methods to stop them from registering.

Thank you. That was my concern, regarding the links in the RSS feed.

By deleting the posts on the forum and the spam accounts, I'm guessing that's all there is to this particular case?

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Yes, to remove any "damage" that is all.

[delta5]

I use the stopforumspam.com plug-in
Works great and is free.

[Kindred]

that, alone, is probably not sufficient...

https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Spam_-_my_forum_is_flooded_with_spam,_what_can_I_do

[delta5]

I also use the recaptcha questions too.

[njtweb]

Add a question. Mine is type this ##hockey and it's worked without issue. I also have my registration set to admin permission required for approval.