For those victim of the robot spam

[Jim_Westergren]

Limiting spam on submit.php

Delete /submit.php or replace it with some temporary text to make sure you stop them. (make backup)

Open up PHPMyAdmin, click on the SQL tab on the top and in the text field insert the following line:

SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `DESCRIPTION` LIKE '%<a href=%' LIMIT 100;

Go to the bottom of the list and click check all and then delete. Repeat this if there were more than 100 until all are gone.

Do the same with the following lines:

SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `TITLE` = '' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `DESCRIPTION` = '' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` = '' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `OWNER_EMAIL` = '' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `DESCRIPTION` LIKE '%.............................%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `DESCRIPTION` LIKE '%[URL=%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `DESCRIPTION` LIKE '%viagra%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `DESCRIPTION` LIKE '%penis%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `DESCRIPTION` LIKE '%**censored****censored****censored****censored** %' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%shop-eua.com.ar%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%nicole-24.com%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%plusize.com.ar%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%netmusoru.ru%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%womensite.com.ar%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%shopsfurniture.com%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%index-24.com%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%axandra-web-site-promotion-software-tool.com%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%shakira-concert-ticket.net%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%portalshop-24.ws%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%portalshop-24.us%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%delivery-vinos.com.ar%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%shoes-eua.com.ar%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `URL` LIKE '%shop-site.com.ar%' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `IPADDRESS` = '122.99.223.68' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `IPADDRESS` = '85.234.43.89' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `IPADDRESS` = '82.140.119.149' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `IPADDRESS` = '193.110.112.228' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `IPADDRESS` = '194.143.145.61' LIMIT 100;
SELECT * FROM `PLD_LINK` WHERE `IPADDRESS` = '72.36.236.34' LIMIT 100;

This will delete I think more than 50% of the robot spam. The rest you have to do manually ....

I am not sure if support here finally understood the problem so I will have my own programmer to close the security whole in the submit.php. I will post here when it is finished. I hope he can make it.

[David]

Thanks for helping, Jim.
We are also still working on this.

[amitpatel_3001]

This has increased a lot these days :(
Iam waiting for phpld support to do something about this in the next update
Thanks to jim for his help!
Amit

[David]

We are getting closer.

[The Webmaster]

Content visible to registered users only.

Well thats what a community is for, to help and share...

Good work Jim, and David I hope there will be an official fix very soon..

[Jim_Westergren]

Actually it did not work that well.

I got 100 submissions since last night, 50 was from spam bots.

But at least better than before when I got 400 spam bots submissions in a day.

/ Jim

[agnivo007]

I hope 3.1.0 is already equipped to handle a large part of this nonsense spamming.

[praveen]

Content visible to registered users only.

Jim is using 3.1.0

[Jim_Westergren]

Well, I was but I changed back to 3.0.6 .....

[saadahmed007]

Why you changed back to 3.06, Jim?
Saad

[Jim_Westergren]

http://www.phplinkdirectory.com/foru...ead.php?t=8194

[Jim_Westergren]

Finally I found the solution on how to stop the spam bots!

I found it by looking at the log files and see how the bots did.

Do like this:

Make a copy of /submit.php and name it /submit2.php
Make a copy of /templates/submit.tpl and name it /templates/submit2.tpl

(In the changes replace domain.com with your domain.)

Open /submit.php

At the very top, replace

Content visible to registered users only.

With the following:

Content visible to registered users only.

Open /submit2.php

At the very top, replace

Content visible to registered users only.

With the following:

Content visible to registered users only.

Replace:

Content visible to registered users only.

With:

Content visible to registered users only.

Open /captcha.php

At the very top, replace

Content visible to registered users only.

With the following:

Content visible to registered users only.

Open /templates/submit.tpl

Find:

Content visible to registered users only.

Replace with:

Content visible to registered users only.

Open /templates/submit2.tpl

Find:

Content visible to registered users only.

Replace with:

Content visible to registered users only.

If you want to give me some credit, feel welcome to blog about or link to this page:

http://www.jimwestergren.com/fightin...ite-spam-bots/

[James]

Dude are you sure about that since the submit.php submits to itself ........

yeah just did a test your not going to get many submissions at all.

[Jim_Westergren]

**censored****censored****censored****censored**.

But I have worked out a solution. Post is updated.

[David]

Content visible to registered users only.

Thanks for posting this. We are going to keep working on this.
I think your solution will definitely slow them way down, and should you start getting spammed again, you can always create submit3.php, etc.

[Jim_Westergren]

Thanks, this worked like wonder. No more spam bots.

I first made 7 different versions of submit but I realized it is not needed. Only 2 are needed. Submit.php goes to submit2.php and submit2.php goes back to submit.php. The referral rules iron out all bots.

[James]

I noticed on the one in your sig is shows 3.06 in the tags. Did you install a 3.1 and it got spammed even with the security settings and hcanging your secret key?

[David]

Content visible to registered users only.

To draw the conclusion that people should not help each other because they paid $10 makes no sense at all. Please work on your attitude. I'm going to send you a PM about this topic.

[Jim_Westergren]

Content visible to registered users only.

I installed 3.1 but changed back to 3.06 for reasons explained here.

I still got spam but I don't know what is the secret key or security settings. I overwrote all files but when trying to run the install I was redirected to a java site. So probably my installation was not successful.

But I have now 3.06, the spam problem is solved and now I am happy

[Jim_Westergren]

About the whole discussion about those $10:

To hire a Swedish PHP programmer it will cost you minimum $100 per hour.

I don't know how many hours the developers spent on PHPLD, hundreds? Maybe thousands??