Sol, I'd like to confirm your analysis. I switched from ReCaptcha to QuestyCaptcha with a custom question http://www.pwsnotes.org/Special:RecentChanges?title=Special:UserLogin&type=signup&returnto=Special:RecentChanges and have seen no further spam.
So, it looks like someone has programmed a MediaWiki/ConfirmEdit-focused spambot that can defeat SimpleCatcha (simple math problems) and -- shockingly -- ReCaptcha. But not that they're using human beings to do the spamming. So, QuestyCaptcha, for now, still works well. -- Dan Kohn mailto:dan@dankohn.com tel:+1-646-833-8291
On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 2:21 PM, Sol Invictus solinvic@gmail.com wrote:
I don't think that's the case; my logs show pretty much instant data entry. They must have found some way to break the service itself. I switched to Questy with some simple things like "type the word X" or "sum(2,3)" and it seems to be blocking them all so far.
On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 10:43 AM, Dan Kohn dan@dankohn.com wrote:
My www.PWSNotes.org MediaWiki site, which I've operated since 2004, has been overrun with spam in the last month. I used Nuke to clean it up. Unfortunately, neither ConfirmEdit with ReCaptcha nor SpamBlacklist is stopping the spammers. I interpret this as meaning that real people are doing the spamming. I just installed ConfirmAccount, which I expect should bring the spam to an end, at the unfortunate cost of making it harder for new people to contribute to our community.
Bummer.
Dan Kohn mailto:dan@dankohn.com tel:+1-646-833-8291
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