{"id":7713,"date":"2005-01-13T15:36:01","date_gmt":"2005-01-13T22:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/01\/13\/spam-by-any-other-name.html"},"modified":"2005-01-13T15:36:01","modified_gmt":"2005-01-13T22:36:01","slug":"spam_by_any_oth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/01\/13\/spam_by_any_oth.html","title":{"rendered":"Spam by any other name …"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, a somewhat disturbing evolution in the War on Comment Spam — the stealth URL. And it shows why blacklists will only ever be of limited use as time goes on (as Jay Allen himself is the first to admit).<\/p>\n

I’ve seen an increasing amount of comment spam coming in pointing at domains that combinations of names and\/or words. “Candicesmith.org” or “FredCorp.com.” Those are URLs that cannot be detected by any blacklist. And if the post text has either innocuous words (“girls!”) or else something munged with HTML entities that reads legibly to the eye but not to the computer, there’s no way to blacklist against it.<\/p>\n

There was originally a sense that you could use URL strings to detect spam, because comment spammers’ customers would want you go see that their URL was for [illicit product] and click through on it. But if readers get the metadata they need from the comment text, and if the spammers can say, “Hey, look, I’ve generated 52,000 links and a high Google pagerank for FredCorp.com (which probably redirects to MyWhatNaughtyVixins.com),” then the spammers and their customers get what they want. That makes the trivial cost of a domain acceptable (and lets the spammers start using more legitimate domain salesfolk).<\/p>\n

Feh.<\/p>\n

Moderating everything would be an option, but that restricts a lot of the fun we have here. Right now, through MT-Blacklist, I force to moderation for comments on posts over a certain age that haven’t had comments on them in the last defined interval. During the most recent attack last night and into this morning, about 100 comments got put into the system, but only one got accepted because it was posted to a recently commented-upon post (and how soon before that info starts becoming cracked by the spammers scripts?). It just takes a while to clean out the garbage, which is moderately satisfying (“And stay <\/em>out!”) but irksome at the same time.<\/p>\n

I could require authentication (e.g., TypeKey). I’m not there yet, though. I really don’t want to require people to sign in first. But I’m getting closer.<\/p>\n

It is a puzzlement.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/u>: And, in validation of the “broken windows” theory (broken windows in a neighborhood provokes more broken windows; uncleaned graffiti prompts more graffiti), some proof that uncleaned comment spam breeds more comment spam<\/a>. <\/p>\n

(via Jay<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, a somewhat disturbing evolution in the War on Comment Spam — the stealth URL. And it shows why blacklists will only ever be of limited use as time goes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spam"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4878,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/15\/zapped.html","url_meta":{"origin":7713,"position":0},"title":"Zapped","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 15-Dec-03 8:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"MT-Blacklist and comment spam on my blogs. Twenty-two automatically blocked since 12\/1. Another two-three dozen semi-automatically removed (and reported to the central blacklist). Sweet....","rel":"","context":"In "Spam"","block_context":{"text":"Spam","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/computer-security\/spam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5673,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/27\/in_the_blacklis.html","url_meta":{"origin":7713,"position":1},"title":"In the Blacklist","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Jan-04 9:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"As inspired by ScriptyGoddess (who gets lots of comment spam), I'm offering access to my own blacklist that I use with MT-Blacklist; it includes both the canonical list, ones I've...","rel":"","context":"In "Spam"","block_context":{"text":"Spam","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/computer-security\/spam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6973,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/11\/21\/spam_spam_spam.html","url_meta":{"origin":7713,"position":2},"title":"Spam, spam, spam, spam …","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 21-Nov-04 9:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"MT-Blacklist still blocks a heck of a lot, but seems vulnerable to Trackback spam (vs Comment spam), largely because the \"old post\" forced moderation feature against Comment spam doesn't apply...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4754,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/12\/spam_strategies.html","url_meta":{"origin":7713,"position":3},"title":"Spam strategies","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Jan-04 11:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been having pretty good success with MT-Blacklist in blocking (or removing) comment spam. The approach it takes is interesting. Rather than trying to track IP addresses (which can be...","rel":"","context":"In "Spam"","block_context":{"text":"Spam","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/computer-security\/spam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7118,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/26\/rubbing_their_n.html","url_meta":{"origin":7713,"position":4},"title":"Rubbing their noses in it","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 26-Oct-04 9:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"Nifty little bit of PHP code here to show your MT-Blacklist stats on the front page of your blog. Probably not going to do it myself, but thought it worth...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7420,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/10\/anti_spam.html","url_meta":{"origin":7713,"position":5},"title":"Anti-spam","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Mar-05 6:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"Jay Allen lists some new anti-comment\/trackback spam tools available for MT3, working in conjunction with (or even overlapping with) his own MT-Blacklist. MT-Moderate, by Chad Everett, catches comments and trackbacks...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}