is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - General
 

the user named "validhack"
I think this site is very old, should improve the security.

Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

are spambot

Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

Please just use the Report Post (https://forums.alliedmods.net/images/buttons/report.svg) button below the user's profile.

Both when you see stuff like this, but also if there are other posts that you feel may be in violation with the AlliedModders Rules.

Correct.

The problem, regardless the age of the site, is that these spam bots are getting more and more "sophisticated":

I once saw something that looked like a spam bot, so therefore I triggered an infraction causing a ban, with a reason like "Spam bot? - Appeal via Contact Us, if you're real.".

I was surprised to see that potential spam bot return and spam again, but it appeared that it had been appealing about the ban, and due to the appeal, it was apparently considered real by someone else.

Although you can get a long way, with a lot of effort, the result you eventually notice, isn't going to be the same forever.

Changing to another kind of forum isn't going to help, or magically fix the problem either.

Spam bots are learning your layers of defence, which means to be pro-active, it requires you to be constantly on guard, and be adapting to new things.

That rarely works that well, together with things driven by volunteers.

There is simply no permanent fix to the problem, regardless what you do (or don't do).

Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

a simple captcha in the login or in the comment boxes would be enough, I bet these bots are so noob that they couldn't overcome the challenge.

Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

I posted about this at the beginning of the year.

https://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=341302

Most of the spam accounts are hijacked accounts with legit post history etc. This forum needs to reset everyone's password if they want to stop this.

Of course a year past almost and nothing has been done.

Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

fixed :idea:

Quick Reply

Message: Hello friends, I bring you an incredible special offer, you cannot miss it...

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Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

That would block more real users that suck at math and some spambots would still bypass it :lol:

Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

No, unfortunately not.

While some bots may be "so noob", as you explain, many of them aren't.

The issue you posted about, was regarding existing - but hijacked accounts.

This thread is about new spam bot registrations.

Account 355909 (literally named "validhack") was created on 2023-12-18, and posted it's junk on on 2023-12-18 06:54 (CET, +0100).

That one is actually false.

It does happen like that, but it definitely isn't the most of it that has an existing legit post history and/or old account creditability, in the way as you say.

I don't really agree with the "everyone's" part though, however, something like that may also become useful, in regards to stopping the problem with the existing - but hijacked accounts.

Having a mandatory password reset, such as if you've been gone from the forums for e.g. 3 months, or 12 months, before you can access the forums again, could be a way of reducing the impact of that specific issue.

But again, a such thing won't prevent the kind of junk that this specific thread is targetting.

What exactly do you expect to be done, explained down to the smallest detail?

A such kind of captcha, or any other kind of captcha, even if you create your own customized one, it will proving it's effect for a very limited amount of time.

As I said above:

That being said, I will be more than happy to admit that I also believe more things could be tried, in order to act more pro-actively to the issues.

But two questions comes up again and again, in regards to that:

1. How many false positives do we want?
2. What is most important?
   a) Effective spam bot defence
   b) That we are not limiting the ability for regular users to use the forums.

Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

Very simple solution:

In order to sign-up at AlliedModders.net, please send $3 to the following address..."

Re: is this site get hacked? an invalid thread and user appears in Sourcemod - Genera
 

:mrgreen:

That would stop them all at once.
But to be fair to users out of not so rich countries, it should be any currency and a low number.