Posted by Chuck Anderson on 12/17/05 21:48

Mike wrote:

>Hello,
> I have a guestbook form that is getting spammed regularly(10 timeds a
>day) by a bot of some kind. I'm in the proccess of picking up PRO PHP
>Security from apress,(Which i need anyway) but I was wondering if anyone has
>a quick fix for this.or point me in the right direction.My client isnt
>happy.
>Thanks
>Mike
>
I use Matt's Perl guestbook on one site.

I ended up "hacking" it to disallow certain phrases. My list of
forbidden words is very short and includes certain pharmaceuticals and
"Texas hold-em." I issue an apology to the guestbook user explaining the
necessity to disallow posts with those words. No valid user has has
triggered that filter yet.

The best thing I did, though (and probably all that's necessary) was to
simply rename the guestbook script file (and the html files) to
something nearly random (something besides guestbook). Since doing that
the spammers have disappeared.

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
Integrity is obvious.
The lack of it is common.
*****************************

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