NodeBB anti spam

[StuartH]

rather than using rechatcha which most people hate myself included, I use questions relevant to the forum on my xenforo site and so far not one spam bot has got through, would this be easier to implement?.

[julian]

Oh most likely. You'll notice my first reply to this topic was 3 months prior

I hate CAPTCHAs as much as the next guy. If there's a way for me to not have to use one, I'd go for it.

[kamov]

@julian said:

Oh most likely. You'll notice my first reply to this topic was 3 months prior

I hate CAPTCHAs as much as the next guy. If there's a way for me to not have to use one, I'd go for it.

Check this: http://www.stopforumspam.com/

API usage: http://www.stopforumspam.com/usage

the service is free, you have 20k API queries per day.

I hope you can integrate it asap, as the spammer are a big problem for my sites

Thanks!

[datagutt]

If the NodeBB developers choose to implement stopforumspam.com, here is a node module for it: https://github.com/dkleehammer/node-stopforumspam

[julian]

@datagutt :

here is a node module for it: https://github.com/dkleehammer/node-stopforumspam

Now that's what I like to hear...

[bentael]

@datagutt said:

If the NodeBB developers choose to implement stopforumspam.com, here is a node module for it: https://github.com/dkleehammer/node-stopforumspam

taking a shot at that today if no one beats me to it.

Stay tuned.

[bentael]

hmm ....
http://stopforumspam.com/usage doesn't really provide post.content analysis, just username, email and IP, is that really what we need?

EDIT: unless you want this check on User creation. @julian can we sneak in a filter:user.create but where do I get the req.connection.remoteAddress from? is the express.req available anywhere at this point?

I was thinking something like that in User.create .. async.parallel call

			function(next) {
				plugins.fireHook('filter:user.create', {username: username, email: email, /* req: req, and probably leave the password out, or not? */}, function(err){
					next(err);
				});
			}

[bentael]

or should that filter live in here? where it would have a reference to the req object.

NodeBB/src/routes/authentication.js at master · NodeBB/NodeBB

Node.js based forum software built for the modern web - NodeBB/src/routes/authentication.js at master · NodeBB/NodeBB

GitHub (github.com)

[psychobunny]

I think req.connection.remoteAddress could be passed into user.create, perhaps at some point in the future NodeBB will also store user's IP as well

[bentael]

@psychobunny that won't work if behind proxy, you need req.ip - BUT you also need express.enable('trust proxy'); if behind one

[bentael]

plugin pending this PR: https://github.com/designcreateplay/NodeBB/pull/820 needed that added hook and the req.ip to be plumbed in User.create

[baris]

Hopefully one of the early birds can take a look @julian @psychobunny

[psychobunny]

@julian is the early bird I'm going to bed (mooning)

[julian]

@bentael -- merged it in, but let me know what you think re: my comment, perhaps I am mistaken?

[bentael]

replied. Thanks.

[bentael]

@julian @baris @psychobunny
we may have a little problem, so I'm writing this anti-spam plugin, and I was able to successfully use the StopForumSpam.com api, and I wanted to use the filter:post.create hook to submit to Akismet as well, BUT, Akismet's API is very greedy, it wants all this stuff, i am not too sure we can easily plumb all that through, what do you think?

some we may not have, but still. I can get the req object in, but not too sure if you have something else in mind

blog url (required)
user_ip (required)
user_agent (required)
referrer (note spelling)
permalink
comment_type
comment_author
comment_author_email
comment_author_url
comment_content
comment_date_gmt
comment_post_modified_gmt
blog_lang
blog_charset

Should we also change the Post.create signature, but then we need to do the same for Topic.reply, Topic.post, and plumb all these info through.

thoughts?

[baris]

Might be better to do this before we call Topics.post or Posts.reply that way we won't have to change the signatures. Also all posting happens through sockets so not sure how you are going to access req.

[psychobunny]

I'm assuming a bot would submit spam from the same address as what they registered from, perhaps saving that to the user hash and then submitting that instead?

edit: don't quote me on this one, I have no idea how devious spammers can be

edit2 I'm actually looking forward to seeing how you pull off the spam/comment moderation system in ACP (ie. "here are your blocked/spammy messages please moderate the following"..) That definitely seems like a pretty decent undertaking compared to your problem above.

[Chris]

A week or so ago I was missing around with the akismet node npm I found (https://github.com/ryanscott/node-akismet) and if I recall it didn't actually require all of the above fields - it's just kind of "the more the better" sort of thing. I beleive I only used url, ip, agent and content in my testing and was able to get a valid return.

[julian]

Typically, I've been of the "if there's an npm module for it, go for it", rather than re-inventing the wheel.