What an Over-Spammed Forum Looks Like

[Jonny Quick]

I check a Gmail account I only use occasionally, and there are "thousands" of emails titled "Subscription Notification", from posts I am subscribed to that are several years old. Thousands and thousands of email, informing me about Viagra, etc...

So I go to the forum to complain and bitch, and it looks to me like these poor folks are still cleaning up the mess.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/

I'd like to hear what people with experience in these matters think has happened. It looks to me like there wasn't any kind of "security limit" placed on a user account. Outdated forum software, maybe? Be interested in finding out what the "inside scoop" is.

 

[InternetExploits]

It looks to me like all the spam posts are within a few minutes of each other. I only glanced, but i did not see any affiliate links either. It is probably just a script kiddie who has a script that auto create accounts and spams the forum, in a attempt to "pwn" the forum owner. They did it for the lulz...

 

[Autumn]

Looks like some good forum software to target, thanks for the link. Links are d0follow too!

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22ASPPlayground.NET+Advanced+Edition%22+viagra

 

[Jonny Quick]

Looks like some good forum software to target, thanks for the link. Links are d0follow too!

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22ASPPlayground.NET+Advanced+Edition%22+viagra

Sure, no problem. You're welcome. Could you please explain what you just said?

 

[Autumn]

Sure, no problem. You're welcome. Could you please explain what you just said?

That forum software is shitty as hell and super easy to spam. Either the viagra spammers are xrumering it or they've written a custom bot, which would be very easy from the quick look I had.

If you search for the name of the forum software then you'll also see lots of security holes being reported, meaning that the software is also vulnerable to outright hacking rather than just signing up and posting a whole bunch of spam. You could fully pwn sites running vulnerable versions of the software and insert your links wherever you wanted.

Unlike many forum scripts. the links in posts on that forum script don't use nofollow, meaning that you get full credit in Google's eyes for the spam you post.

If you have a look at that query in Google then you'll see roughly 15 million pages of viagra spam on sites using that forum script around the internet, thus demonstrating its high value as a spam target.

 

[Jonny Quick]

If you have a look at that query in Google then you'll see roughly 15 million pages of viagra spam on sites using that forum script around the internet, thus demonstrating its high value as a spam target.

Yes, of course, that is if anyone were interested in doing such a thing.

 

[skohh]

Yes, of course, that is if anyone were interested in doing such a thing.

Hey dumbass your in the blackhat section lol

 

[steviep]

...thats why when you run a forum it helps to make the first post moderator approved and only after certain amount you can edit your profil. You still get spammed but no one can see it (of your forum visitors)....

 

[Hornbone]

very funny...looks like the forum admin does not know how to delete properly. He is doing soft deletes...Never heard of that forum script.

 

[pilot35]

Still after 2 years of this thread the forum is full of spam