heniv181 Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 There has been a substantial increase in spam from bots on the ufopaedia wiki lately, Hobbes is doing a great work of keeping them at bey but.... it might be time to take a new look on the security and the version state of the wiki? //Kokkan - Heniv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 There has been a substantial increase in spam from bots on the ufopaedia wiki lately, Hobbes is doing a great work of keeping them at bey but.... it might be time to take a new look on the security and the version state of the wiki? //Kokkan - Heniv *Reloads shotgun* I'd like to propose that Heniv be made into an UFOPaedia administrator to help with these issues. I've known Heniv/Kokkan from XCOM's 2K forums for more than a year and I think that his wiki experience would be useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I don't think Pete's been on since I sent him the PM when the spamming started. It's still showing unread. Might be busy at the moment. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tycho Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 Can automatic user account creation be disabled or changed to require an admin to approve a new account? Approving new users would have to be less time consuming than deleting and blocking the spammers as well as undo anything they have posted... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 We need the cavalry. Yesterday I blocked 12 bots or suspicious usernames. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heniv181 Posted October 16, 2013 Author Share Posted October 16, 2013 Thank you for the confidence Hobbes, but I have no urge to clear out bots all day =D. What is needed is a new (more secure) version of the MediaWiki software and/or some to our wiki unique questions upon registration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Anyone knows where Pete is? I've sent him a message a few days ago but got no answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorondor Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Hang on to your seats, lads. I shall try to give Pete a nudge. :: Don't know if I'll get lucky. Just hold the fort a little longer. He's bound to come about, but be advised a certain delay in response is to be expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Just hold the fort a little longer. Don't worry, I've got a safe spot. It's just that the spammers keep coming and coming...https://www.ufopaedia.org/images/thumb/c/ce/Bad_Things_%28EU2012%29.jpg/800px-Bad_Things_%28EU2012%29.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Voyager Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 HOT DAMN! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Sorry chaps - was on holiday, then extremely busy and also in ninja training etc etc . I'm looking into things now to see what I can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Okay, looks like lots of new changes in the newer versions (current site is 1.16, latest version is 1.22), so I'm going to clone the site to a subfolder and run the upgrade on that copy (and note down how to actually do it this time ) then let you guys test it before switching over tomorrow night if that seems reasonable? I'll post again once the copy is made and upgraded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Just requesting the web hosts to upgrade PHP to version 5.4 (we're on old 5.2!). It's a requirement of the new version of the softwar that runs UFOPedia and the PHP devs aren't supporting 5.2 any more. There may be some repercussions to this, so I'll be keeping an eye out over the next few hours to see if anything goes awry with ufopedia.org or anything on StrategyCore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Thanks Pete! - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Just requesting the web hosts to upgrade PHP to version 5.4 (we're on old 5.2!). It's a requirement of the new version of the softwar that runs UFOPedia and the PHP devs aren't supporting 5.2 any more. There may be some repercussions to this, so I'll be keeping an eye out over the next few hours to see if anything goes awry with ufopedia.org or anything on StrategyCore. Thanks Pete! Meanwhile I'm getting an error while I'm trying to edit the https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Squads_(EU2012) page. Could this be related? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Yeah, looks like the PHP upgrade has turned some strict error checking on, or else there is some code that doesn't work with the latest version of PHP. I'll have to resolve that later when I'm home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Hi Hobbes Please give it another go and let me know how you get on. It was basically a bit of code that was suddenly out of date after the PHP update, but it was an easy enough one to fix fortunately. I'm hoping to have the new test version ready soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Yup, it's working now What can we expect out of the new version? Will the spammers be gone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 29, 2013 Share Posted October 29, 2013 Spammers will never go away as some modern spammers are just humans paid to post junk so they will generally get past spam filters. Automated spammers should be reduced by the new version - if you want to look at the changes between version 1.16 and 1.21 (latest stable version) on this list you can see a changelog: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Release_notes The ConfirmEdit module is the main thing that has changed - rather than relying solely on reCaptcha, which is easily bypassed by spammers nowadays, there are a lot of other options available which are generally more successful in stopping automated spam: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmEdit#CAPTCHA_types I'm also hopeful there are similar options for new registrations so we don't just end up with spam accounts that then can't edit - I'd rather not have the spam accounts, but we can't have everything I guess. I'm still having issues getting the new version to work but will let you know once it's ready to test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Pete, whatever ju-ju you've worked on the wiki appears to have taken effect. Hobbes and I haven't had to ban anyone for a bit. I hope we caught the lot of them, as I have this sneaking suspicion we may have let a few slip through the cracks. They'll show themselves in time I guess. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer_pl Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Pete, whatever ju-ju you've worked on- NKF Because voodoo is too mainstream? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Ermmm... I haven't done anything yet We're still running the old version. I wonder if there was some issue with the older version of PHP causing a security issue with the software. That or the sign-up form just doesn't work any more (would be worth someone testing and deleting the test account afterwards if you can - I know less about that software than you guys unfortunately!). Weirdly the new version I'm trying to get to work only works with caching switched off, but that's no good as each page load is 4-5 times slower as a result. It might just be because it's in a subdirectory and looking for things that aren't there, but I'll need to schedule in a few hours when folks are happy for me to turn the site off to test this out as I don't want to catch people mid-edit or lose anything because I'm rushing about. I might have time this weekend, or definitely next weekend - hopefully the spammers will stay away until then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 Perhaps some other site they were attacking has dealt with the spammer and spambots at the source? Either way it's been nice and quiet for a bit which is nice. Also set a time to do the maintenance and we can slap it as a big message on the front page. Because voodoo is too mainstream? Only matters if zombies are involved. Not sure about rubber chickens with pulleys though. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 Very unlikely yuo can sever stop spammers at the source. The majority is automated from botnets and suchlike, the human ones are from poorly-paid people in countries where they don't bother tracking people down ever. The internet is sadly lawless in that regard. It would be better if it was Lawless in this regard: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 I've been trying to create a new account but it keeps replying that the Antispam question was incorrectly answered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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