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Constant Spamming?

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just the code source of dynamic loot system :laugh::laugh:
 
Spam bots are as old as dirt.
 
San said:
https://www.troyhunt.com/data-breaches-vbulletin-and-weak/

Just don't use any password you also use somewhere else, and don't invest efforts you're not prepared to lose any day. The outlook of having to migrate the forum to another software without getting paid for it is... scarier.
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i informed 711 of this last August and he said its fine, altho not reusing passwords is highly recommended in general

PCF member passwords are indeed salted and hashed, using a method beyond what the standard vBulletin installation provides. For obvious reasons, I cannot go into more detail.

I am not sure which vulnerability is referred to in your quote, but PCF is always kept up to date with the latest vBulletin updates and security patches, so there is nothing to be concerned about with regard to your PCF member account.
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so no need to worry really. its just a spam attack. i did find on the CoD Advance warfare forum, these same bots have killed it, its like we have a weed problem they are overgrown
 
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Assuming passwords are saved as a salted hash (with something better then the old MD5), I will not be too worried about passwords being used elsewhere....... but yeah, I use multiple passwords, depending on how "important" the place I am logged into.
 
Good to know about the passwords. By the way, the link above leads to this service, which is interesting to check out:

https://haveibeenpwned.com/
 
The recent spam has nothing to do with the forum having been hacked or any compromise of user accounts.

Some idiot is simply registering accounts manually to bypass the various anti-bot measures in place on PCF.

In any case, all new accounts are now automatically moderated by default, so this should no longer be an issue.
 
711 said:
The recent spam has nothing to do with the forum having been hacked or any compromise of user accounts.

Some idiot is simply registering accounts manually to bypass the various anti-bot measures in place on PCF.

In any case, all new accounts are now automatically moderated by default, so this should no longer be an issue.
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attachment.php
 
711 said:
The recent spam has nothing to do with the forum having been hacked or any compromise of user accounts.

Some idiot is simply registering accounts manually to bypass the various anti-bot measures in place on PCF.

In any case, all new accounts are now automatically moderated by default, so this should no longer be an issue.
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Hi,

Will this be a permanent setting or is it a temporary measure taken for now?

If permanent, I guess it going to increase the load on the mods.
 
Is this Ackbal or Cimbi?
 
-rep them and system should ban after xx -rep :)
 
711 said:
The recent spam has nothing to do with the forum having been hacked or any compromise of user accounts.

Some idiot is simply registering accounts manually to bypass the various anti-bot measures in place on PCF.

In any case, all new accounts are now automatically moderated by default, so this should no longer be an issue.
Click to expand...


it seems the "idiot" is still able to post?
is he able to bypass new accounts being automatically moderated?
or it`s an older registered account able to bypass a ban?
2nd question rings some bells regarding the security of our accounts on pcf.
 
Spambot Bandit Strikes Again !!!

 
Seems like the worst attack yet.

20 pages of spam now.

:eyecrazy:
 
Killahbee said:
We could exclude general discussion from view for now:
User CP - General Settings - Scroll to bottom "Exclude From View"
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I actually just did this :yay: Let me know when the spam is gone haha
 
The new / current spammer's account is frh771

Wonder if this was meant for 711......
 
I suggest taking the whole thing down until a better solution is found.

711 said:
In any case, all new accounts are now automatically moderated by default, so this should no longer be an issue.
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Spammers typically make a couple hundred accounts wherever they find it possible, so I guess they have some left in stock.
 
Haruto Rat said:
Spammers typically make a couple hundred accounts wherever they find it possible, so I guess they have some left in stock.
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Maybe place all recently created users that haven't posted yet under moderation. This should incapacitate the "stock".
 
This isn't the first time this forum has had a sustained spam attack. EF (which I also mod) has also had similar spam issues from time to time.

There was a week in 2013, that JC will recall, where spam was flooding in here as fast as we could remove it.
There were thousands of threads and posts, almost all held in the mod queue, and taking hours each day to handle.
As I recall it lasted pretty much exactly a week, and then suddenly stopped.

Hopefully something similar will happen this time too.
 
San said:
Maybe place all recently created users that haven't posted yet under moderation. This should incapacitate the "stock".
Click to expand...

That's what I have done now.

It will delay posting privileges for legitimate new users until one of the staff can manually approve them, but that's preferable to massive spam attacks for now.

I will continue investigating additional measures to deal with this issue.

Thanks everyone for your patience and understanding.
 
Serica said:
Hopefully something similar will happen this time too.
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so you hope the attacks will stop on their own, you sure know how to comfort forum users.

beggining to question the safety of peoples data on this forum
 
Majstorex said:
so you hope the attacks will stop on their own, you sure know how to comfort forum users.

beggining to question the safety of peoples data on this forum
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Over the past 10yrs there have been very few spambot issues that have actually made themselves visible to forum members.
Most are handled in the background by 711 and the mods before any of the rest of you ever sees them.
My experience is that they generally come in waves.
(A bit like loot! :laugh: )
Like any wave event, I expect this one will eventually end.
(Again .. a bit like loot :frown: )

In the meantime, I have every confidence that 711 will handle the technical side of this, so as to reduce the impact on members as far as possible.
I'll be helping on the administrative end, to remove the threads and posts that do make it thru the protective layers.

As 711 is aware, my personal circumstances have changed in the past year, reducing my available time for mod duties here for a while. Real life is like that. :wise:
However, I'll do what I can to approve posts and threads by legitimate new users as quickly as possible to minimise the increased impact on them.
 
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