Westrian Forum Spammers Foiled Again
Jan. 18th, 2007 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lwoodHa!
http://www.westria.org/forum/register.php
Non-Geek version: Now, when people sign up for my bulletin board thingy, they have to answer a math question. Automated botnets set up to try and register on my (deliberately off-brand-but-actively-maintained) forum system will not expect this, and fail. Yay. Should the blighters get in anyway, another system will check posts over looking for Dastardly Activity, also yay.
Now if anyone ever posted...I'd be set.
Geek version:
I got the code, then jiggered the English parts and, with the help of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
feonixrift, made it a 50/50 shot you'd get a multiplication question instead of an addition one. Subtraction and division might have frightened people and/or required more elaborate checks; mustn't frighten off the mathematically illiterate.
Also, I swatted the n00b programmer, corrected his missing semicolon (ewps), and allowed as how it is Good Practice to use the long form of the php variable query instead of the short form, as the short form is not universally enabled, and therefore will hamstring the innocent, clueless administrator.
Like myself, until I waved the poor thing atfeonixrift while hunting through php.ini for some distasteful setting.
Akismet is Doing the Right Thing--it successfully caught a spam post in its tracks.
Now if anyone ever posted...I'd be all set.
-- Lorrie
http://www.westria.org/forum/register.php
Non-Geek version: Now, when people sign up for my bulletin board thingy, they have to answer a math question. Automated botnets set up to try and register on my (deliberately off-brand-but-actively-maintained) forum system will not expect this, and fail. Yay. Should the blighters get in anyway, another system will check posts over looking for Dastardly Activity, also yay.
Now if anyone ever posted...I'd be set.
Geek version:
I got the code, then jiggered the English parts and, with the help of
feonixrift, made it a 50/50 shot you'd get a multiplication question instead of an addition one. Subtraction and division might have frightened people and/or required more elaborate checks; mustn't frighten off the mathematically illiterate.Also, I swatted the n00b programmer, corrected his missing semicolon (ewps), and allowed as how it is Good Practice to use the long form of the php variable query instead of the short form, as the short form is not universally enabled, and therefore will hamstring the innocent, clueless administrator.
Like myself, until I waved the poor thing at
feonixrift while hunting through php.ini for some distasteful setting.Akismet is Doing the Right Thing--it successfully caught a spam post in its tracks.
Now if anyone ever posted...I'd be all set.
-- Lorrie
