SpamBot activity

[imported_admin]

There appears to have been some advance in spambot technology since we are getting a lot more spam than usual.

I am going to increase security on the Bison Commons board and see it that works. That means you won't be able to start on topic in Bison Commons until you reach a certain post count.

[Jeffdaryl3rd]

++++ Much appreciated.

[sambini]

+++

[imported_admin]

It didn't work... the spam just moved to the Softball forum so it's back to how it was before.

[scottheck]

Also in Bison Commons...

[Jeffdaryl3rd]

Well, the effort is appreciated. Who the hell spends time creating these things? Honestly.

[Swaghook1]

Someone who has no life and likes to be a pain in the arse. ;D

[Jeffdaryl3rd]

Wow, I'm surprised I haven't started making them then.

[tony]

Wow, I'm surprised I haven't started making them then.

HAHAHAHA! You, sir, are worthy of the Smack board!

Actually, it is not actual people doing the spamming, it's a program, probably running on zombie PCs, that automates the spamming process.

The thing works like this:

1. The spammer has a webcrawler that goes out and finds bulletin boards and makes a list of them.

2. Zombie PCs get that list and try registering at one or all the BBs on the list. They probably guess at the verification code (you know, when you register to a site and they ask you to enter the text as it appears in the picture above). You'd think that would take several million guesses before they'd get a good one. Maybe they have figured out a way to make decent guesses or maybe, since they have potentially hundreds of thousands of zombie PCs cranking away at this night and day they just guess AAAAAAA, AAAAAAA1, etc. Spam used to get through once a day, now it's suddenly jumped to six - that could indicate they have improved their "verification cracking" algorithm or that they have infected a whole bunch of new computers (or both).

3. Once the spambot defeats the verification code, it automatically polls its email inbox for the activation email and activates the bogus user. Then it tries to post its payload on each and every forum in Bisonville. Fortunately, it tries to post them too close together in time so that activates "flood protection", which is just that the board won't take more than one request from a user in a given number of seconds.

4. I'm not sure what happens next... they must have an inexhaustible list of email addresses. Once an email has been used to successfully crack into a bulletin board, it is probably retired and they pull a new email address of their list.

It's a real pain in the ass so I hope that somehow somebody figures out how to cure zombie PCs.

Hey, thinking through this problem gave me an idea... I changed the length of the verification code so it should be 10,000 450,000+ times harder to guess it now... be interesting to see if that helps. (Update: It apparently has.)

[Junior]

HOW TO KILL ZOMBIES ;)

DECAPITATION.

To kill zombies, you need to destroy their brains. The most surefire route is simply lopping off the cranium with a chainsaw, machete, or samurai sword. Mind the follow-through, however-- anything less than 100 percent severance just isn't good enough.

BLUDGEONING.

Any blunt object--from a baseball bat to a brick--wielded with suitable force at the cranium will destroy the brain. But be quick on your feet and keep your eye on the target, slugger--when you're this close to a zombie, miss even once and you might as well just hand your brains to the zombie on a silver platter

BURNING.

Don't have the convenience of a sniper rifle to take out zombies from afar? The next best thing is a Molotov cocktail--just make sure the zombies are far enough away so they'll be reduced to ashes before they can shamble after you.

EXPLODING.

A solid technique, but one that requires heavy weaponry. In the chaos that will doubtlessly strike an urban center after a zombie infestation, make your way to a military storehouse or a morally dubious pawn shop and acquire a rocket launcher. Then shoot, load, and repeat.