Porn Spammers...

[frhardy1]

A few days ago I was asked to help moderate a forum that uses version 2.3.4. Spammers (robots) have been invading the forum. The Administrator tells me he is going to pay for a Professional Upgrade of the current vBulletin version in a couple of weeks when he gets back in town. In the meantime, I'm going to try to help keep the spammers at bay.

The forum Administrator said it better than I could:

I have made you a moderator on all forums... I enabled every option as far as what a moderator can do.

I think the options you were talking about are not available on the older version of vBulletin that is running now. At least I can't find them in the control panel. Some of the things I should be able to do don't seem to work. I have the controls set to require my approval on any new members but they just seem to automatically become members. Also some of the forums that are supposed to require a membership to post seem to sometimes allow a guest to post. I won't worry a lot about this now since the upgrade should be happening soon.

I appreciate your help on this. I don't expect to have much internet access on my trip so the forum will be in your hands and Bill's hands while I am gone."

I own a forum that uses a newer version of vBulletin (and I'm planning to update it in a week or two as well) so I have a little experience Administrating the software, but that doesn't seem to translate very well to this problem.

In September 2006 someone I know registered and posted on the forum. I noticed his user name does not show-up in the member list. When I got moderator privileges, I discovered he is still in the "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" user group. I sent an email to him at a different email address, and he replied. He said he got rid of that old email address, but remembered clicking on the link in the email to complete the registration.

The other moderator tells me he's been busy deleting porn spams and getting rid of the people who post them... But he's also been telling me he cant find the spammers in the Member list. Now that I can see this stuff, all of the recent porn spammers are either posting as guest or are in the "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" user group.

I can Ban registered users, but not delete them. I can't do either with "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation." (And I haven't figured out yet how to Ban an email address...)

Has this forum been hacked? Since the Administrator will be out of town for the next week, is there anything I can do as a Moderator to get rid of these posters?

[frhardy1]

Has the forum been hacked.

Perhaps too much explanation in the previous post. What I want to know is: since these spammers are posting while they are waiting for email confirmation, has the forum been hacked?

Someone sent me a private message advising me to Ban their IP Addresses. I would do that, but I can't figure out how. How can a moderator Ban IP Addresses?

[Steve Machol]

1. Assuming you have not installed any hacks or plugins, this is a permissions issue. Check the overall Usergroup permissions:

Admin CP -> Usergroups -> Usergroup Manager -> Edit Usergroup

And the Forum permissions for each forum and Usergroup:

Admin CP -> Forums & Moderators -> Forum Permissions

2. Only Admins and those with access to the Admin CP can ban IPs.

[frhardy1]

Thank you for answering Steve. This forum has 591 members, 2461 threads and 15,220 posts. I understand what you are talking about because I have Administrated several vB forums. As a moderator of this forum I don't have the ability to access the Admin CP. However, I am reasonably sure the Administrator has already done everything he could to tighten up access.

Some of the things I should be able to do don't seem to work. I have the controls set to require my approval on any new members but they just seem to automatically become members. Also some of the forums that are supposed to require a membership to post seem to sometimes allow a guest to post.

I'm also sure he has done nothing to modify the original software. But it seems to me it is not behaving the way it should. Last night I watched a Guest register. As soon as he showed-up in 'Welcome to our newest member' he disappeared on the who's online list. He was counted in 'currently active users" but his username was not listed. While I was waiting for his post to show-up, I deleted two porn spam posts from unregistered users. I was ready to delete this guy's post too, and it turned out to be a legitimate reply to another post.

Except for one section of the forum, posting requires registration. Unregistered guests shouldn't be able to post in the rest of the forum, but spammers certainly are. I don't believe anyone should be able to post while waiting for email confirmation, yet they are (including legitimate users like this guy - who should not have been able to post until his registration has been approved). As far as I know, no-one should be able to get past the Admin CP settings (like being invisible on the members list and 'online users' list) yet they are.

If the forum Administrator gives me Admin CP access, I can sort through the user groups and member profiles, and ban a lot of the spammers.

But I don't know if that will help without knowing if the board has been hacked. Or if they are just exploiting a vulnerability?

If he has vB do a professional upgrade, will that solve these problems? Or If the forum has been hacked, will the new software just inherit the current problems? Please take a few minutes and tell me what we are up against?

[Steve Machol]

This will work if the permissions are set correctly and there are no modifications breaking this. Have the license owner fill out a support ticket if he needs further help.