Today I would like to announce the release of “Project Honey Pot Http:BL” WordPress Plugin.
Description
This plugin allows you to verify all visitors’ IP address against the Project Honey Pot database. Using the Http:BL API, this plugin flags, logs, and blocks visitors with a high threat score, helping you prevent harvesters, spammers, or other
suspicious bots from abusing your blog. I’ve been talking a lot about LoJack anti-spam measures lately and this is one of them.
This plugin requires you to sign up for a free account at Project Honey Pot so that you can use their Http:BL API to verify your visitors.
This plugin is based on Jan Stepien’s http:BL version 1.4 which is no longer being supported. This version of the plugin fixes a lot of database bugs and usability issues that the original plugin had. Here are the key benefits of having this plugin enabled.
- LoJack anti-spam solution with collective intelligence
- Easy Project Honey Pot integration. No need to mess with Apache mod_httpbl, which means that this will work on shared hosts.
- Ability to redirect malicious bots to a bot trap.
- Logging capabilities
Documentation
Download
Download via the Official WordPress Plugin Directory
Upcoming Feature(s)
- Threat score limit per type (suspicious, comment spammer, harvester)
- White list
- Improve log display
As always, please feel free to share any comments, questions, and suggestions!
wow this sounds great. a very good idea to block them by ip. i will try it!
replied on July 9th, 2008 at 10:13 am
So I have the plugin running now. I don’t get that much traffic so we will see how much stuff it catches/blocks. I just thought I would mention that in your instructions it says to use httpbl_stats() function and in the settings for the plugin it says to use php_httpbl_stats()(which i didn’t see right away because I was using the readme). Not a big deal but because my layout is widgetized sometimes it is hard to place these kinds of calls in the right place on the template to make them work, not knowing which was the right call made it harder.
Thanks
replied on July 9th, 2008 at 10:50 am
@digitaltodd
Thank you very much for letting me know! I will change it and check it in so nobody else gets confused.
this is a great idea, i´ve been waiting for something like that. thank you!
replied on July 8th, 2008 at 9:29 am
@autworld
I hope this works out for you. Please let me know when you’ve implemented this. I love feedback. Thanks!
replied on July 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
thanks for your feedback, Thaya, we have tested it today on the blog of a friend of mine and yes, it helps alot. you did a great job! we gonna implemented it in the next days, after we´ve finished some other improovements. i´ll give you an feedback after this, have a nice day.
Released version 1.0.1 with the following change:
- Fixed readme.txt typo to use php_httpbl_stats() instead of httpbl_stats()
Hi,
As a long time project honyepot lover/implementer (I even wrote a port fro SAP systems once), I’m very happy with this plugin for my blog.
I see one minor issue though. In the log I get after this line ‘A list of 50 most recent visitors listed in the Project Honey Pot’s database.’ A lot of this ‘\n\t\t\’. It seems that the length of this string with crs and tabs is growing when the log gets longer.
Eddy
replied on July 10th, 2008 at 9:46 am
@Eddy De Clercq
Thank you for trying out this plugin and your great feedback. I will release a new version without these characters in them today.
Just so that I know for the future, what version of PHP are you using? Also are you running on a Linux or Windows platform?
replied on July 10th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Hi Thaya,
Thx for the quick reply and solution. It’s PHP 5 on Linux.
Eddy
Released version 1.1.0 with the following change:
- Removed “\n\t” from HTML printout as this shows badly on some platforms.
replied on July 10th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Problem solved. Again thx for the quick fix
Released version 1.2.0 with the following change:
- Added backwards compatibility with Jan’s original plugin (using table ‘httpbl_log’ for logging).
hi there, my question is not really related but what plugin are you using for the reply function and the threading function in your comment form?
replied on July 18th, 2008 at 9:20 am
@ovidiu
I use WordPress Threaded Comments. It works well with my AJAX Force Comment Preview plugin. Hope you can check that out too!
Released version 1.3.0 with the following changes:
- Fixed a major bug in the previous release that broke logging.
- Added CSS to admin menu to let user identify options groups easier.
Hi. I know you don’t represent Project Honeypot, but I can’t seem to be able to sign up to get the API key. Their signup form says it will send a validation email which you must follow to activate, but it never comes. I’ve checked spam folders, and I’ve tried different email accounts. I am having a dreadful time right now with spammers (appear to be human, but professional spammers) and I’m hoping to utilize the service.
Perhaps as a current member of the Honeypot community, are you aware of any outage in their service, or stoppage of new accounts?
replied on August 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
@Clay
I’m sorry you are having this issue. I haven’t noticed any outages or stoppage of new accounts. They are usually good at letting us know if they are going to be down for maintenance or anything. Did you try to send them an email? You can get to the email link on the about page.