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Admin Tools

#18074 Honeypot and .htaccess file

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
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PHP version
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Admin Tools version
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Latest post by nicholas on Wednesday, 13 November 2013 08:43 CST

jmtodd
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 3.2.0
PHP version: (unknown)
MySQL version: (unknown)
Host: (optional, but it helps us help you)
Admin Tools version: 2.5.8
Description of my issue:

Having signed up with Honeypot as outlined in your documentation, I wanted to keep my side of the bargain and create a honeypot on my site. As you know, this involves putting a .php file on my site and creating a link to it on my pages.

I have also set up an .htaccess file. Do I need to include the honeypot .php file in the exceptions list?

Many thanks for your help (and a great product!).

Meanwhile, I hope you had a good time at the Joomla World Conference.

Kind regards,
Jonathan

dlb
Jonathan,

All you need to do is enter your Project Honeypot ID in the Admin Tools WAF Configuration screen and you are in business. Admin Tooos' plugin is providing the information to each page on your site. You don't need the .php file or the .htaccess excepion. The php file would be required if you were not using Admin Tools.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

jmtodd
Hi, Dale!

Many thanks for such a prompt reply.

Just wanted to check we are not talking at cross purposes here, as I may not have explained myself very well.

In terms of protecting my site from potential spammers by using the lists from Project Honeypot, that is all fine. I have put in my Honeypot ID and, as I understand it, that is sufficient and I'm good to go.

What I am now doing is, as requested by Project Honeypot, seeking to setup a honeypot on my site in order to catch spammers and report them back to Honeypot, which, as I understand it, involves using a .php file they provide which includes email addresses that mechanical bots might pick up and which Honeypot will detect if they are used. However, there need to be links to the .php file from within the normal pages of my site so that the file is picked up should a rogue bot crawl through my site.

I have currently put such links in my footer but was concerned that, should the bot follow them, it would be prevented access to the file via .htaccess.

However, are you saying that there is already such a mechanism within admin tools and that it is already setting up a honeypot for unsuspecting bots to fall into? When I look at the source of my webpages (which I'd assumed is what the bot would be looking at) I see no links for it to follow but admin tools may be doing clever things I know nothing about!

Sorry to be a nuisance - but I just wanted to check we were talking about the same thing.

Thank you for your patience!

Best wishes
Jonathan

dlb
You are not a nuisance at all! I just don't know that answer to your question. I'll check with Nicholas. Today is his "jet lag" day, I have not seen him online yet.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
You will just need to add your honeypot directory to your .htaccess Maker's "Allow direct access, including .php files, to these directories" and regenerate the .htaccess file. I'm doing the same on my blog site.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

jmtodd
Brilliant! Many thanks for your prompt response. Hope you're recovering from the jet lag!

Best wishes
Jonathan

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
You're welcome! I am much better today. I slept for 12 hours and got over the jet-lag :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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