• Registered: 2005-01-26
  • Posts: 43

Topic: How to stop regular spam posts?

My forum is receiving nearly hourly spam postings for Viagra, Cialis, etc. Probably from a robot.

The domain they point to is usually "sti.ipc.ru", but there have been variations. The IP is always different. And they are posted to the Guestbook (so no registration required). And the topic has so far always been a US State (example "Illinois")

Is there a way to fight back? Some way of not allowing a post that contains a certain keyword?

Anyone else having this problem?

Math Is Fun
  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

I don't think there's a mod for that. It does sound like a great idea for a 1.3 extension though smile

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

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  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

Not allowing posts that contain a certain keyword? That sounds like mod_security

4 Reply by MathsIsFun (edited by MathsIsFun 2006-02-06 12:00)

  • Registered: 2005-01-26
  • Posts: 43

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

Thanks for the reply, Rickard!

And thanks, Smartys for the mod_security suggestion - I will study up on it.

In the meantime I may end up writing a "kludge" in PunBB to solve it, because it is annoying my members.

Math Is Fun
  • From: Leuven, Belgium
  • Registered: 2005-06-14
  • Posts: 2,653

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

In parser.php, you could try sending the message() function when a certain word/sentence is in a post.

Something like this (doing this out of my head tongue):

$unallowed_words = array("Viagra","Ciaris"); // add some more in this style
$str_unallowed = implode(", ",$unallowed_words);
if(strpos($text,$unallowed_words)) {
message("This is a message against spam bots. Please remove the words " . $str_unallowed . " from your post.");
}
  • Registered: 2005-11-30
  • Posts: 165

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

MathsIsFun wrote:

My forum is receiving nearly hourly spam postings for Viagra, Cialis, etc. Probably from a robot.

The domain they point to is usually "sti.ipc.ru", but there have been variations. The IP is always different. And they are posted to the Guestbook (so no registration required).

what about this mod http://punres.org/viewtopic.php?id=725 or maybe you could ask to confirm a submit by enter a code geneated by an image ?

http://www.foxmask.info

foxmask's Website

  • Registered: 2006-01-10
  • Posts: 9

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

I'd like to chime in on this discussion. 
Being an avid user of the Wordpress blog software, dealing with comment spam is one of the pitfalls of having a blog in general (I think you all will agree with me on that)..  there's a neat plugin called Akismet.   It's very similar in nature to the MT Blacklist plugin for Movable Type, if any of you have experience with it.

What I'm getting at is this..  Akismet is GPL'd software. Since the few months of it's release it already has a full API surrounding it as well as many different incarnations created by the community. (ie, PHP5 class, Python library, etc). It's even gone as far as being ported to different Blog software.

Although I'm not really certain how much spam posts pose a problem...as I've never had to deal with them.. this may very well be something to take a look at.

Download it, poke around the source code, see how you could possibly implement it into a plugin?

Just my .02   

note: I do not endorse the preceeding, nor can be held accountable for what has been said
smile

8 Reply by Tobi (edited by Tobi 2006-02-07 19:19)

  • Tobi
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • From: Samos, Greece
  • Registered: 2005-06-27
  • Posts: 477

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

That one looks like it's designed to work with Wordpress. Will it work with punBB?
Another drawback: Every post is sent to the web service, examined, and sent back.
Imagine the extra traffic on a busy board.

My mad idea (probably even silly & stupid..):
People who have their own server (ie root access)  should be able to plug punBB into spamassassin.
Anybody out there without spamassassin? smile
So the post would be parsed through SA and sent back - all on the same machine.
One could use the SA headers to decide wether to admit the post or not.

After all, spam posts are pretty much like spam mails, contentwise.

I know that would be quite some work though.... it would require an extension to SA as well as to punBB.

The German PunBB Site:
PunBB-forum.de

Tobi's Website

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

My mad idea (probably even silly & stupid..):
People who have their own server (ie root access)  should be able to plug punBB into spamassassin.

This would be a job for mod_security tongue

10 Reply by Tobi

  • Tobi
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • From: Samos, Greece
  • Registered: 2005-06-27
  • Posts: 477

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

Do you think so?
I mean, after all mod_security is about static rules, regex thingies and such. So it will look for a very long list of keywords and find out how relevant they are. While spamassassin already comes with a database and has this bayesian filter so you could even *train* your board.
Don't get me wrong, I use and love mod_security but I think it's not the right thing for this job....

The German PunBB Site:
PunBB-forum.de

Tobi's Website

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

Tobi wrote:

Do you think so?
I mean, after all mod_security is about static rules, regex thingies and such. So it will look for a very long list of keywords and find out how relevant they are. While spamassassin already comes with a database and has this bayesian filter so you could even *train* your board.
Don't get me wrong, I use and love mod_security but I think it's not the right thing for this job....

Point taken wink

12 Reply by Marse

  • From: United Kingdom
  • Registered: 2005-04-30
  • Posts: 12

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

If spammers are automating PunBB spam then maybe it's time to implement CAPTCHA?

Do you allow guest posting? Posting without verifying? Maybe these could stop the spam!

GapYearTalk.com - Gap Year Talk - My Student Holiday Hostel Gap Year Discussion Forum

Marse's Website

  • Registered: 2004-01-16
  • Posts: 18

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

I just had to delete 10-15 posts send by an spam-bot. But these posts were all send one post per second. Perhaps it would be an easy and not-to-complex addition to PunBB to check if the last post is a certain number of seconds in the past when saving a new post? So lets say that only every 10 seconds a new posting is possible? This would have reduced the spam in my forum down to 10%.

  • From: U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2005-08-26
  • Posts: 1,607

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

Carsten wrote:

I just had to delete 10-15 posts send by an spam-bot. But these posts were all send one post per second. Perhaps it would be an easy and not-to-complex addition to PunBB to check if the last post is a certain number of seconds in the past when saving a new post? So lets say that only every 10 seconds a new posting is possible? This would have reduced the spam in my forum down to 10%.

PunBB already has post flood control for users.

Or are you suggesting that the last post for the whole forum should be checked, regardless of who posted it? I'm a bit confused.

Looking for a certain modification for your forum? Please take a look here before posting.
  • Frank H
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • Registered: 2003-03-16
  • Posts: 1,423

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

Marse wrote:

If spammers are automating PunBB spam then maybe it's time to implement CAPTCHA?

But you have to consider accessibility ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha#Accessibility sad

And as a "bonus"

Wikipedia wrote:

...site owners could become target of litigation if they are using CAPTCHAs that discriminate against certain people with disabilities.

So I'm afraid it will only make the problem less worse ... but IMHO it's not the ultimate solution that will make everything ok ... SPAM is a tricky thing ...

  • Registered: 2004-01-16
  • Posts: 18

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

pogenwurst wrote:

Or are you suggesting that the last post for the whole forum should be checked, regardless of who posted it?

Yes something like that. If the last posting in the actual topic is not x seconds in the past minimum, no new posting is allowed. Is that clear?

  • From: Curitiba, Brazil
  • Registered: 2006-05-31
  • Posts: 32

Re: How to stop regular spam posts?

How good is punBB fighting spam? I have a phpBB forum with several mods installed, and every now and then I still get a few spam messages... I'm thinking about changing for punBB if it's better.

Charles.

calande's Website