Central spamreport

UnrealIRCd.org Central API Services

• Central API: What is it and how to get an API Key
• Central Blocklist: Block spammers/drones on-connect
• Central Spamreport: Report spam via SPAMREPORT
• Central Spamfilter: Centralized spamfilter rules

IRCOps can report a user that is spamming by SPAMREPORT Nick. If you add a spamreport block of the type central-spamfilter then the report is sent to the UnrealIRCd team. Reporting spam helps us to catch new spam and improve the system, it may lead to improvements to both Central Blocklist and the Central Spamfilter.

This functionality is available (opt-in) in UnrealIRCd 6.1.3 and later

This functionality is NOT enabled by default, see #Configuration on how to enable it.

Please only send spam reports for actual spam from bots and the like, and not report "normal" misbehaving users (e.g. just angry users, swearing users, etc). We are mostly interested in repeated spamming, especially if it happens on multiple IRC networks, reporting through this system helps with detecting that.

Configuration

Using spamreport with CBL

This is usually what you want. Make sure the Central Blocklist (CBL) module is loaded. Then, add a spamreport block like this:

spamreport unrealircd { type central-spamreport; }

Using spamreport without CBL

If you want to use SPAMREPORT but do not want to use central-blocklist (CBL) for on-connect checking, then load the Central Blocklist (CBL) module and set:

set { central-blocklist { blocklist-enabled no; } }

And:

spamreport unrealircd { type central-spamreport; }

Doing so would be less standard, but you could do this if you are NOT OK with using CBL to check your users, but are OK with reporting data for a specific user when reporting spam.

Privacy

The SPAMREPORT command will send the same data as to centralblocklist plus:

• It will also send the last 10 PRIVMSG/NOTICE/PART/NICK commands of the user (excluding private PRIVMSG/NOTICE, so excluding PM's to users).
• It will also include the nick name of the IRCOp who did the SPAMREPORT command. That's mostly to make it easier to contact you in case we have any questions (this would probably be rare).

As you can see, because of the inclusion of the "last 10 commands", this command is less privacy-friendly than Central Blocklist because the SPAMREPORT command sends more data to us. For example, we will receive actual channel messages. The reason for that is logical: we need to know what text is being spammed, in order to do something about it, so that text (those commands) are sent to us via SPAMREPORT. In that sense, it is similar to copy-pasting spam from a screen or IRC log and sending it to us, except that this system is much better because:

• For IRCOps it is much easier to just type SPAMREPORT Nickname to report spam
• It reports spam in an uniform matter which makes it much easier to process
• It also keeps things like color codes in the messages, while those are often stripped in other IRC logs