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Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #157997] Mon, 19 January 2009 00:04 Go to next message
MrMike is currently offline  MrMike   United States
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I apologize in advance if this isn't the correct forum to post this in; it seemed the most applicable one that I saw.

Due to the rather aggressive increase in bot activity that I've seen across many of my forums I've developed some "bot buster" code, and I'm offering it to the FUDForum community (and several of the other major message boards as well).

I've bundled up a drop-in BotBuster mod for FUDForum that people are welcome to use. Technically it's not 100% "drop-in", but it's very, very close. It's all self-contained in one file, requires NO database modifications, and only one minor edit to the registration file. (You'll also want to set a couple of very simple configuration options in the BotBuster file, but that's it.)

It uses the http://www.BotScout.com API to check registration emails and reject known bots. Because it uses the BotScout API you don't have to host anything, change your database, or do any complicated modifications to your code. BoutScout.com keeps a list of emails, IPs, and user names that bots use and makes them available through a simple API (as well as manual searches).

Full Disclosure:
I'm the owner/operator of www.BotScout.com. What we do is trap bots by using a large number of "bot honeypot" forms located on a bunch of our sites. We then publish that information so people can use it to screen registration attempts. Smile

I've included configuration options for SMF, FUDForum, phpBB, Phorum, PunBB, Invision Power Board, FUDForum, Ikonboard, Snitz, and W-Agora. It seems to work fine and it can be used on virtually any kind of forum, contact page, or web form.

The code and a ReadMe file are available for download here: http://www.botscout.com/code.htm (click the "Download BotScout BotBuster ver. 1.10" link) If you use it I'd love to hear about it.

If anyone would like to write up specific installation instructions for FUDForum, I'll gladly include it in the ReadMe.txt file.

Also, if anyone would like to create a FUDForum-specific mod or plugin using the BotScout API, I'd be very interested in helping and would be happy to publish the code or a link to the mod on the BotScout site. The API is simple and easy-to-use, and the API details can be found here: http://www.botscout.com/api.htm.

MrMike
http://www.BotScout.com
http://www.botscout.com/image/bslogo.gif
Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158005 is a reply to message #157997] Mon, 19 January 2009 07:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
naudefj is currently offline  naudefj   South Africa
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This looks promising. What hooks do we need to have in the FUDforum code to support such a mod? I assume a "user registration" hook that returns true/false will do.
Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158021 is a reply to message #158005] Mon, 19 January 2009 13:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
MrMike is currently offline  MrMike   United States
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naudefj wrote on Mon, 19 January 2009 02:48

This looks promising. What hooks do we need to have in the FUDforum code to support such a mod? I assume a "user registration" hook that returns true/false will do.
I don't know...since I'm not able to see or modify the code in FUDForum, I can't say for sure.

For all other forums it's very simple- all that's required is to place one line of code with an include() statement in the right location. This is normally in the registration code at the point where the registration form is submitted and the fields are processed. The BotBuster code just needs to be able to see the 'email' and 'username' fields that are submitted when a person (or a bot) tries to register.

Since I can't see or modify any of the code in FUDForum, I don't know how it would be done. If it can't see those fields it may not be able to function with FUDForum. Sad

How does one make changes to FUDForum, and how or what is is it compiled with?
Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158022 is a reply to message #158021] Mon, 19 January 2009 13:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
naudefj is currently offline  naudefj   South Africa
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FUDforum is standard PHP. Here is the registration code: http://cvs.prohost.org/c/index.cgi/FUDforum/getfile/install/forum_data/src/ users_reg.inc.t
Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158023 is a reply to message #158022] Mon, 19 January 2009 14:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
MrMike is currently offline  MrMike   United States
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Okay, looking at that code, here's my best guess...the include line would go immediately before this code:

$this->id = db_qid("INSERT INTO
{SQL_TABLE_PREFIX}users (
login,
alias,
passwd,
name,
email,

It would need access to two variables, one of them the 'email' field from the registration form, the other one would be either the 'alias' or 'login' (I don't know what the difference between those two fields are, could you please explain them to me?)
Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158027 is a reply to message #158023] Tue, 20 January 2009 07:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
naudefj is currently offline  naudefj   South Africa
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The variables you need are: $this->email and $this->login.

PS: I'm not sure what the difference between login and alias are myself. However, it looks like they are always equal.
Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158037 is a reply to message #158027] Tue, 20 January 2009 14:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
MrMike is currently offline  MrMike   United States
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naudefj wrote on Tue, 20 January 2009 02:38

The variables you need are: $this->email and $this->login.


Okay, so would this code work to extract and assign the variables:

$XMAIL->email
$XNAME->login

I just need to make "$XMAIL" equal to the submitted email address and "XNAME" equal to the submitted user name.
Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158038 is a reply to message #158037] Tue, 20 January 2009 18:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
naudefj is currently offline  naudefj   South Africa
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The correct code will be:

$XMAIL = $this->email;
$XNAME = $this->login;

Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158039 is a reply to message #158038] Tue, 20 January 2009 19:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
MrMike is currently offline  MrMike   United States
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naudefj wrote on Tue, 20 January 2009 13:26

The correct code will be:

$XMAIL = $this->email;
$XNAME = $this->login;




Thank you. The generic install code will be updated and a short installation guide will also be written.

Re: Anti-Bot Modification for FUDForum [message #158081 is a reply to message #158039] Wed, 28 January 2009 23:08 Go to previous message
Marticus   United States
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For what it's worth. Alias is exactly as it sounds, an alias to show on the forums instead of the login name. This option is off by default. It is not used in the authentication but can be entered in the registration process if the below setting is enabled. I believe it will always be the same as login name if it is not explicitly set to something else.

Quote:

Use Aliases:
Allow users to specify a nick name, that will be used instead of a login name to identify those users on the forum.

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