Vandalism

langcliffe

Well-known member
There have been three cases of vandalism in recent days. Is it still necessary to register before posting, or has registering become too easy?
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Forgive me for seeming not very well informed but does "vandalism" in this context mean that caves have been directly vandalised as a result of information being made easily available via the internet? Or is "vandalism" some recently utilised Wiki-speak term meaning people have deliberately interfered with and messed up previously correct information maliciously on Wikipedia entries?
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
I will always find it in my heart to forgive you for anything, Pitlamp.

As the thread is about the Wiki, I think it reasonable to assume that it was the Wiki that had been vandalised, rather than the subjects (pubs, shops, books, equipment, caves, etc.) that the Wiki contains information about.
 

dunc

New member
Yes, there appears to have been a sudden appearance of this pointless crap, Susie is doing a good job of undoing it from what I've seen. Not an ideal situation though..
 

bubba

Administrator
langcliffe said:
There have been three cases of vandalism in recent days. Is it still necessary to register before posting, or has registering become too easy?
You do have to register, but perhaps bots have been at work. I'll look into beefing up security.

I'm not sure what the recent changes mean anyway - single word entries like  "litrocorcor" or "paspasle" ? Not your usual sort of spam.
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
bubba said:
I'm not sure what the recent changes mean anyway - single word entries like  "litrocorcor" or "paspasle" ? Not your usual sort of spam.

Some bots attack forums in such a way in order to build up lists of vulnerable forums, which are then sold.
 

graham

New member
langcliffe said:
bubba said:
I'm not sure what the recent changes mean anyway - single word entries like  "litrocorcor" or "paspasle" ? Not your usual sort of spam.

Some bots attack forums in such a way in order to build up lists of vulnerable forums, which are then sold.
What worth does knowledge of a vulnerable forum have, such that someone would pay to know?
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Thanks for your forgiveness Langcliffe, which is most gratefully received. Sorry for seeming ignorant and detecting potential ambiguity in your original posting but they hadn't invented "wacky wikis" (as Goon so eloquently referred to them in Descent) when I was educated. I just learned boring old English. (If I'd have invented wikipaedia I'd have spelt it thus, not "wikipedia". I blame the Americans!)
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
graham said:
What worth does knowledge of a vulnerable forum have, such that someone would pay to know?

Once you have a list of forums and guest books that are vulnerable, you then use other bots which you have also paid for to fill the sites with link spam. This has the effect of moving the advertised sites up the search engine rankings. This software is amazingly sophisticated. Xrumer is probably "the best":

See: http://www.botmasternet.com/faq/

 

AndyF

New member
graham said:
langcliffe said:
bubba said:
I'm not sure what the recent changes mean anyway - single word entries like  "litrocorcor" or "paspasle" ? Not your usual sort of spam.

Some bots attack forums in such a way in order to build up lists of vulnerable forums, which are then sold.
What worth does knowledge of a vulnerable forum have, such that someone would pay to know?

....because vulnerable forums can have javascript code inserted on them that, when the page is visited, deposits malware on the visitors PC. There has been a plague of this recently, mostly stemming from China. The malware can take the form of keyloggers and password stealers.

We have experienced this sort of attack, its quite ingenious the way it works...

 

bubba

Administrator
I've just installed a CAPTCHA extension that should stop bots signing up as wiki users.

I've also banned all the recent spamming users.

Hopefully this will sort things :)

Thanks to those who've undone the vandalism  (y)
 

dunc

New member
The latest vandalism has created a new page which needs deleting (I don't have the privilege).
I don't think standard users can delete pages, a job for Bubba probably - best us normal folk could do is delete the content so it's a blank page..
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
dunc said:
I don't think standard users can delete pages, a job for Bubba probably - best us normal folk could do is delete the content so it's a blank page..

The problem then is that the database gets cluttered with useless pages.
 

dunc

New member
The problem then is that the database gets cluttered with useless pages.
Yep, it was only suggested as a temporary measure to remove the offending crap before Bubba (or anyone else who can) deletes the relevant page.


And having just had a look - it's just a Rhys has done, deleted the content awaiting page deletion from a higher level...
 

bubba

Administrator
I've deleted the page.

Unfortunately we're always going to get some level of spam/vandalism. No measures will ever stop it completely.

Having to delete a page or two per week/month doesn't seem too bad really, it only takes a few seconds to do it.
 

bubba

Administrator
langcliffe said:
dunc said:
I don't think standard users can delete pages, a job for Bubba probably - best us normal folk could do is delete the content so it's a blank page..

The problem then is that the database gets cluttered with useless pages.

It shouldn't really become a problem - it's quite easy to find those pages from the Orphaned Pages page...in fact i've just done this.
 
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