Archive for August, 2010

Bad Behavior 2.1.7

August 9th, 2010 by Michael Hampton

Bad Behavior version 2.1.7 has been released. It is a development release intended for testing and verification of new functionality and should not normally be used on production sites.

Please note: The 2.0 series of Bad Behavior is receiving limited updates, including unblocks, bug fixes and security fixes only. Future development is taking place in the 2.1 development tree.

Who should upgrade?

All development users should upgrade to ensure that web pages are indexed properly in the Bing search engine.

What’s new?

New in this release (since 2.1.6):

  • Changes in the way Microsoft does round-trip DNS identification for its search engine IP addresses caused msnbot, the search engine crawler for Bing, to be intermittently blocked. This issue has been resolved. (This issue does not affect the 2.0 series, which uses a different method of identification.)
  • Minor changes have been made to the way requests are handled when the web site uses the CloudFlare reverse proxy service. More changes may come in the near future; the ultimate intent is to be able to support any server behind any reverse proxy.

What’s coming?

In the next few releases I will be rolling out a significant number of blocks intended to catch a wide variety of malicious robots. These include content scrapers, referrer spammers, automated cracking tools and more. Each of these is going through an extensive review prior to being released, to ensure that legitimate requests are not blocked.

Download

Download the latest development release of Bad Behavior now!

Support

I can only spend time on improving Bad Behavior when incoming donations cover the cost of my time. Otherwise I have to engage in paying work to keep food on my table.

I happen to like giving spammers a hard time, and it’s frustrating that I don’t get to spend enough time on it. You can help me make Bad Behavior even better by setting up a recurring contribution, or making your most generous one-time contribution for any amount.

Thank you again for supporting Bad Behavior development!

Bad Behavior 2.1.6

August 8th, 2010 by Michael Hampton

Bad Behavior version 2.1.6 has been released. It is a development release intended for testing and verification of new functionality and should not normally be used on production sites.

Please note: The 2.0 series of Bad Behavior is receiving limited updates, including unblocks, bug fixes and security fixes only. Future development is taking place in the 2.1 development tree.

Who should upgrade?

Users of the CloudFlare reverse proxy service should upgrade to ensure that legitimate requests are not blocked.

What’s new?

New in this release (since 2.1.5):

  • A logic error in the CloudFlare detection code was causing legitimate requests to be intermittently blocked. This issue should be fixed.

What’s coming?

In the next few releases I will be rolling out a significant number of blocks intended to catch a wide variety of malicious robots. These include content scrapers, referrer spammers, automated cracking tools and more. Each of these is going through an extensive review prior to being released, to ensure that legitimate requests are not blocked.

Download

Download the latest development release of Bad Behavior now!

Support

I can only spend time on improving Bad Behavior when incoming donations cover the cost of my time. Otherwise I have to engage in paying work to keep food on my table.

I happen to like giving spammers a hard time, and it’s frustrating that I don’t get to spend enough time on it. You can help me make Bad Behavior even better by setting up a recurring contribution, or making your most generous one-time contribution for any amount.

Thank you again for supporting Bad Behavior development!

Bad Behavior 2.1.5

August 2nd, 2010 by Michael Hampton

Bad Behavior version 2.1.5 has been released. It is a development release intended for testing and verification of new functionality and should not normally be used on production sites.

Please note: The 2.0 series of Bad Behavior is receiving limited updates, including unblocks, bug fixes and security fixes only. Future development is taking place in the 2.1 development tree.

Who should upgrade?

Users of the CloudFlare reverse proxy service should upgrade to ensure that blocked requests display correct, usable technical support keys.

What’s new?

New in this release (since 2.1.4):

  • A code omission was causing Bad Behavior to display incorrect technical support keys to blocked requests on sites using the CloudFlare reverse proxy service. This issue has been fixed.

What’s coming?

In the next few releases I will be rolling out a significant number of blocks intended to catch a wide variety of malicious robots. These include content scrapers, referrer spammers, automated cracking tools and more. Each of these is going through an extensive review prior to being released, to ensure that legitimate requests are not blocked.

Download

Download the latest development release of Bad Behavior now!

Support

I can only spend time on improving Bad Behavior when incoming donations cover the cost of my time. Otherwise I have to engage in paying work to keep food on my table.

I happen to like giving spammers a hard time, and it’s frustrating that I don’t get to spend enough time on it. You can help me make Bad Behavior even better by setting up a recurring contribution, or making your most generous one-time contribution for any amount.

Thank you again for supporting Bad Behavior development!