AngryPets Blog

ReverseDOS Configuration Issue

Chris Frazier, maker of the invaluable PostXING (I'm using it to make this post) ran in to some configuration issues with ReverseDOS on his CommunityServer enabled site. He was able to quickly solve it, and was kind enough to blog about his solution.

I'm swamped at work right now, but as I get time I'll pull down a copy of Community Server, plop it on a VPC, and do some configuration testing of my own. Once that's done I'll add some configuration instructions to my main instructions page.

(I'm also planning on putting up a roadmap for ReverseDOS here within the next week or so. (Nothing fancy.))

Existing Comments:

# re: ReverseDOS Configuration Issue - Posted: 6/24/2005 1:45 PM - By: David Hayden
   Kudos on ReverseDOS, which I read on Chris' blog. I now no longer have the hundreds of junk referrers in the referrs tab of my .Text blog engine.

I do notice, however, that they have now possibly switched their strategy and are coming in as trackbacks. Excuse my ignorance, but does ReverseDOS help defeat this or do I need another tool?

Thanks, Dave

# re: ReverseDOS Configuration Issue - Posted: 6/24/2005 2:10 PM - By: Michael K. Campbell
   Hmmm. I expected ReverseDOS to cause an arms race. I wasn't expecting it this quickly.

I'll do some research into how trackbacks work in .Text (I think Scott blogged it somewhere). Underneath the covers, though, I would expect there's an HTTP POST involved, which should mean that you can squash trackback spam with the post filter. For example, if the trackbacks are to http://www.pokerspammers.com/xyz/holdem/28/etc, then you can just 'ban' any POSTs against your site with pokerspammers.com in the body of the post:

<add type="post" pattern="pokerSpammingDomain.com" action="403" />

That should do it.
(And thanks for the cool comments about ReverseDOS on your blog!)

# re: ReverseDOS Configuration Issue - Posted: 6/24/2005 2:42 PM - By: Michael K. Campbell
   UPDATE:

I just looked at the .Text source code. Trackbacks can also apparently be GETs. In that case, these won't be much more difficult to stop than filters for poker or holdem, just ban the site:

<add type="get" pattern="nastySiteNameHere.com" action="403" />

hth,

--Mike

# re: ReverseDOS Configuration Issue - Posted: 6/24/2005 3:45 PM - By: David Hayden
   Hi Mike,

Thanks for the answer.

When I add the following

<add type="get" pattern="poker" action="403" />

I get the following error in .Text:

String reference not set to an instance of a String. Parameter name: className

However, when I change "get" to "post" all is fine.

That being said, I think the reason I was getting trackback spam was because all my original filters were only type="referral" and I had none of type="post". That was dumb on my part.

I will play with this over the weekend using the type="post" settings and see if that clears up all the trackback spam as well.

Thanks so much for contributing this tool to the community.

Dave

# re: ReverseDOS Configuration Issue - Posted: 6/24/2005 4:01 PM - By: Michael K. Campbell
   >>>
When I add the following
<add type="get" pattern="poker" action="403" />
>>>

Doh!!! Glad you caught that. There are no "get" filters. I meant to say "querystring"... which should work.

I MEANT to say:
<add type="querystring" pattern="evilPokerSite.com" action="403" />

(i.e. you may want to try with BOTH kinds (post and querystring))

Sorry.

Add your own comment: