Anyone else being hit with more than the usual spam today?

CTXMedia

CTXMedia

Well-known member
I suspect it's Xrumer - as I'm not only seeing it on my own forums, but on a number of other XF forums too - so have they got a new version out or something?
 
It takes a while for lots of people to update to the newest versions of XRumer...

People don't want to have to update their core files or make changes, so are often they are quite happy living with a slightly older version if it is successfully building links

What we are probably seeing is the effect of links not being successfully created on forums (due to people now depending more on QA rather than reCaptcha), so people are bothering to update XRumer.


XRumer 7.5.31 Elite is still the current version according to ixrumer (released 03/11/12)... but it can take a while for people to update.
This was mostly bug fixes (http://ixrumer.com/general/39-xrumer-7531-elite.html)

What we are probably seeing is more and more people updating from an older version, pre textcapctha.txt (I think this was before 7.5.28 18/8/12)... This probably will also include a larger core list of XF sites. We will see more and more people complaining that QA is no longer working as more XRumer users upgrade and XRumer is further trained with the textcapctha.txt files .... the more QA's become popular, the better XRumer gets at beating them by simply adding the QA answers for all botters to share

Edit...

oh wait, there is a 7.7.35 now: http://www.botmasterlabs.net/more1/ No info on what the update includes yet, you can betcha' core QA's are have been updated
 
Uh Oh. I got lots too.

moderation.queue.spam.increase.webp
 
Yup, the newest version is targeting TextCaptcha (as the previous few version has too)

7.7.35, Here is whats new according to the Russian Botmaster Support forum:
+ program to learn new types of graphic protection: + Added new base

TextcaptchaForums.txt - new and proven nezaspamlennye (yet) novoprobivaemye forums tekstkapchami, who taught the program, we recommend the passage of 3-5 reps
TextcaptchaForums_NotRus.txt - the same forum, but no Russian language resources
TextcaptchaForums_Rus.txt - the same forum, but only Russian-language resources
tc_log_links.txt - all resources added with tekstkapchami during the competitions, the 1 st and 2 nd, with filtering takes

+ Due to be held in September-October, the competition for collective learning tekstkapcham, the program trained to work with more than 70,000 new tekstkapchami, in order to fully test a multiple increase in performance, we recommend to get started with database TextcaptchaForums.txt
+ updated autoregistration on GMail. com and mail.ru
+ extended xmessages.txt
+ in the case of macro # trans, now marked in the records, which language has been translated into a specific site
is implemented + invariant processing "quote" in the handler tekstkapch, and invariance is implemented for points and colons in the content
list + Default schedules added schedule for mailing loops - Circle.xml
+ Fixed bug incorrect processing of certain types of simple captures
+ improved algorithm in the "Registering only"
+ added MakeToIndex.ini
+ improved handling logic macros # trans. .. # Notrans
+ updated algorithm for creating topic-Polls (POLL) on the latest phpBB
+ enhanced copy protection
+ is implemented to circumvent the protection type "Access Restricted" - "One more step to access", as they become activated proxy for this thread
+ bug fixed incorrect processing of one type of CAPTCHA (captcha sign - "/ modules / captcha / img.php")
+ Fixed generation of log processing tekstkapch (but in the current version it is still disabled, in order to avoid the "brain" of the data)
+ added dop.preduprezhdeniya for beginners
+ improved detectability unknown fields on the description before they
implement handling + reCAPTCHA executed through <div>
+ adds the ability to randomly number of lines of the macro # file_links, an example of using: # file_links ["lines.txt", 10 .. 20 , S]
Click to expand...

This compertition was nice:
Due to be held in September-October, the competition for collective learning tekstkapcham, the program trained to work with more than 70,000 new tekstkapchami

Bye bye text CAPTCHA... if anyone has not been hit using text captcha, you can probably send you working text CAPTCHA set to XRumer for a reward :)
 
I've seen an increase in registration attempts on my Xenforo site, but they are being blocked successfully. I've seen a big increase today on another forum I run that is still on phpBB3.
 
Yes, big increase today.. grrr. It started with a spam for Xrummer then has continued today with lots of registrations and a few spam posts.

Going to close off registrations.
 
Install this as a free CAPTCHA: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/customimgcaptcha-spam-combat.1161/ (and customise your image)

It might at first seem like a simple idea, but the technology to get around this is years away (image recognition on a sample set that has not been trained against, XRumer is no where near that yet)

XRumer can beat CAPTCHA that it can train against (which are then used on multiple forums.... so there is a bonus for beating these), but beating an image type it has never come across before is still very hard for it.

If you want to keep it simple, you can just turn your QAs into images and it wont solve those (but simple text in images will eventually be solved, so I recommend a unique photo with associated image text, keeping it human friendly)
 
I've disabled the option to moderate new members and just sent them an error message
I've had about 50 spam bots try to sign up today.
I just changed my question and answer as well.

thanks god I have this sonb spam protection mod ;)
 
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