analysis of a spammer - Printable Version +- Linux-Noob Forums (https://www.linux-noob.com/forums) +-- Forum: General Stuff (https://www.linux-noob.com/forums/forum-4.html) +--- Forum: Site News (https://www.linux-noob.com/forums/forum-66.html) +--- Thread: analysis of a spammer (/thread-2288.html) |
analysis of a spammer - anyweb - 2005-12-16 hi guys it seems that spammers try every method in the book using methods like email, phising, posting on forums (with links to where they want you to click) amongst their methods, while browsing through the statistics of this website (https://www.linux-noob.com) i came across some unfamiliar 'referral links' which drew my interest and later, disgust. The spammers have obviously got some 'spam bots' which crawl websites for one purpose, to falsely leave behind their 'links' in the statistics page of a website. To try and further understand these low-lifes I did some analysis:- look at the statistics posted here [/url]http://linux-noob.com/usage/usage_200512.html#TOPREFS Quote:# Hits Referrer1 73339 24.26% - (Direct Request) ok, the first link is listed as a 'direct request' and what that means is any internal link on linux-noob.com that links back to a page/site/forum whatever on linux-noob.com is listed as a direct request, same goes for anyone coming here via a bookmark to linux-noob.com or RSS feed. The second link in the list above is our friend google, nothing strange there. However, if we look at the 3rd to the 12th links listed, things start to become strange, obviously to find out who these 'new' referrals were I clicked on the link only to be surprised that I landed on a 'so called search page' take a look at the first link listed 3 1462 0.48% http://charlestyrrell-ins.com/ clicking on that will re-direct you to the following website http://www.searchmeup.com/search.php?aid=3...id=this_is_SPAM which is 'marketing' (spamming to you and me) a drug called "lousy spam". "lousy spam" itself (according to google) is a diet pill, but who cares. I don't. I'm not interested. What annoys me is that the 'charlestyrell' link redirects me to a 'search site'. That is the SPAM in action. Let's take the second site listed:- 4 1462 0.48% http://wgostonemantel.com/ once again, it redirects to the above page http://www.searchmeup.com/search.php?aid=3...id=this_is_SPAM and you can probably guess that the 'aid=36585' part of the link is the method that the spammer has of knowing how successful his spam is. Let's continue with the third link:- 5 1340 0.44% http://downjigger.com/ redirects to http://www.searchmeup.com/search.php?aid=3...hoes&said=550_1 which is the same 'searchmeup.com' website and the same 'aid=36585' but now with a 'new' PHONEY search term. ok,, you get the idea now, so who is running this spamming operation ? let's do some whois ... Quote:charlestyrrell-ins.com (Reverse lookup failed) and the next 'link' Quote:wgostonemantel.com (Reverse lookup failed) and the third link Quote:downjigger.com (Reverse lookup failed) so are the people mentioned above real or fake ? any takers ? the 'searchmeup.com' website has an 'report abuse' link which redirects to [url=https://www.umaxlogin.com/user_page.php?page=FAQ]https://www.umaxlogin.com/user_page.php?page=FAQ which is a 'pay per click' ad revenue, so we can see that the many links 'left behind' on linux-noob.com's STATS page are designed to get users to 'click' and end up on 'searchmeup'. some is trying to profit here, but who ? I tried to 'report abuse' to the domain name creation site listed above but was left feeling less than impressed (see screenshot) cmon guys, feel like helping me out here ? who is doing this and how can we stop them ? cheers anyweb <a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/post-1-1134724123.png" data-fileid="429">[img]<fileStore.core_Attachment>/post-1-1134724123.png[/img]</a> analysis of a spammer - znx - 2005-12-16 Quick way to do it with php: One way Code: switch($_SERVER[''HTTP_REFERER']) { Two way Code: $bad = array("badsite.com", "badsite1.com"); Either of these placed at the top of the webpages (i.e. on every page like the header) should just terminate the page early and fail to load it for those site REFERER's. Of course this method isn't perfect as the REFERER can easily be faked. Another method would be to use iptables.. and simply drop traffic from the bad sites... Code: iptables -A INPUT -s badsite.com -j DROP Again though.. you can get around this, a proxy for instance (or tor?). Just some ideas... analysis of a spammer - xDamox - 2005-12-16 Hi anyweb, I was told you could do this by using: mod_setenvif [/url]http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_s...f.html#setenvif also you could use mod_rewrite [url=http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html]http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html Ill have a look into both and see if I could produce a rule to stop the spamming znx's method is also good :) analysis of a spammer - xDamox - 2005-12-16 ok I had a little chat in #apache and was told do to: setenvifnocase referer ".*charlestyrrell-ins.com.*" deny_these, then as appropriate deny from env=deny_these analysis of a spammer - anyweb - 2005-12-19 oh this is just annoying me.... they are now increasing the number of 'referral links' and of course the actual sites have nothing to do with the URL they claim to be not only that but how are they doing this ? usually a 'referral' means that someone clicked on a link to end up here, but this is clearly not the case here i'm still thinking about your suggestions above but has anyone else got any ideas ? can i remove the links from webalizer ???? Quote:3 1765 0.48% http:// networkresourceservices.com/4 1765 0.48% http:// northeastmetrotec.com/ be warned the first link (i clicked it to see) is NSFW pretty sure the rest are also bad [/url][url=http://linux-noob.com/usage/usage_200512.html#TOPREFS]http://linux-noob.com/usage/usage_200512.html#TOPREFS analysis of a spammer - hybrid - 2005-12-19 I'd avoid posting real links in your posts, you're just helping their PageRank. :) analysis of a spammer - znx - 2005-12-22 Code: RewriteEngine on nasty referer's be GONE.. :) analysis of a spammer - anyweb - 2005-12-23 thanks znx, but where do i put that and what actions must i take inorder for it to do anything ? do i have to install something ? cheers anyweb analysis of a spammer - znx - 2005-12-23 Quote:thanks znx, but where do i put that and what actions must i take inorder for it to do anything ? do i have to install something ? Oh yeah.. it would have been good to say how to use it .. :P First make sure that the paths are good for your log files (maybe you want to put elsewhere to test?) then you can simply put that in a .htaccess file in the docroot of your site.. and it will protect across the whole site then... If you want to test it out.. you can add my site and try clicking through from it... Code: .... When you click from my site.. you should reach a Forbidden page.. and it should NOT be logged in access.log and it should be logged in access_bad.log. Neat eh :) analysis of a spammer - hybrid - 2005-12-23 Quote:Neat eh :) znx, you are the script king. :) |