Help me stop spam, what's wrong with this IF statement?

[R0CKY]

I'm using a now unsupported PHP download system that has a public front end where the visitor can send a message when a file download is broken.

 

The problem is now I need some kind of anti spam measure to stop robots sending me rubbish through the form.

 

Here's is a part of the php page....

 

 
    
//Send the mail
if (isset($_GET['process'])) {
    if (!check_input($_POST, array('message'))) {
        smarty_error(lang('emptyfield'));
    }

	//Make sure the spam response is valid
if ($_POST['spamcheck']=="recon")  {
	 }

    
    //Make sure the "from" address is valid
    if (!eregi('^[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+\.([a-zA-Z]{2,4})$', $_POST['fromemail'])) {
        smarty_error(lang('emailinvalid'));
    }

 

The //Make sure the spam response is valid part was inserted by me, but it is not working. The visitor can type anything he likes in the spamcheck form field and the form is still being accepted.

 

Any hints, please?

 

Thanks in advance.

[EdwinPaul]

I'm using a now unsupported PHP download system that has a public front end where the visitor can send a message when a file download is broken.

 

The problem is now I need some kind of anti spam measure to stop robots sending me rubbish through the form.

 

Here's is a part of the php page....

 

 
    
//Send the mail
if (isset($_GET['process'])) {
    if (!check_input($_POST, array('message'))) {
        smarty_error(lang('emptyfield'));
    }

	//Make sure the spam response is valid
if ($_POST['spamcheck']=="recon")  {
	 }

    
    //Make sure the "from" address is valid
    if (!eregi('^[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+\.([a-zA-Z]{2,4})$', $_POST['fromemail'])) {
        smarty_error(lang('emailinvalid'));
    }

 

The //Make sure the spam response is valid part was inserted by me, but it is not working. The visitor can type anything he likes in the spamcheck form field and the form is still being accepted.

 

Any hints, please?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

You didn't put an error-message after your checking. Try:

	//Make sure the spam response is valid
if ($_POST['spamcheck']=="recon")  {
        smarty_error(lang('spam'));               //   <-- you will have to add this in smarty-table
	 }

[Pikachu2000]

This isn't actually doing anything. There's no action specified if the condition is TRUE.

if ($_POST['spamcheck']=="recon")  {
	 }

[R0CKY]

@ Edwin, I'll add the text once I get it working, thanks.

@ Pika, if true it continues through the code and sends the form data in an e-mail (isn't that how it works... unsure....)... I'll post the entire code for the page below so you can see...

 

//Check if reporting is disabled
if ($settings[0]['enable_report'] == 0) {
    smarty_error(lang('feature_disabled'));
}

//Get file info
$file = $db->GetArray("SELECT * FROM ".$dbPrefix."files WHERE file_id = ".intval($_GET['id']));
if (count($file) == 0) {
    smarty_error(lang('file_exist'));
}
$file = $file[0];



    
//Send the mail
if (isset($_GET['process'])) {
    if (!check_input($_POST, array('message'))) {
        smarty_error(lang('emptyfield'));
    }

	//Make sure the spam response is valid
if ($_POST['spamcheck']=="recon")  {
	 }

    
    //Make sure the "from" address is valid
    if (!eregi('^[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+\.([a-zA-Z]{2,4})$', $_POST['fromemail'])) {
        smarty_error(lang('emailinvalid'));
    }
    $usermessage = trim($_POST['message']);
    $message .="BROKEN DOWNLOAD REPORT FOR website.NET\n";
    $message = $_POST['fromname'].' ('.$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'].') has reported a broken link at '.$settings[0]['dbname'].".\n";
    if (!empty($usermessage)) {
//        $message .= $_POST['fromname']." has included this message:\n";
        $message .= $usermessage."\n\n";
    }
    $message .= "File: ".$file['file_name']."\n";
$message .= "URL: ".$file['file_dlurl']."\n\n";
    $message .= "Please visit the following link to view the file:\n";
    $message .= $settings[0]['dburl'].'/index.php?act=view&id='.$_GET['id']."\n\n";
//    $message.= "If you have verified that the link is broken, you may edit the download URL in the paFileDB admin center at ".$settings[0]['dburl']."/admin.php\n\n";

//    $message .= "The IP address of the person who reported the broken link is: ".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."\n\n";
    $message .= "To report abuse of this feedback system, please visit ".$settings[0]['dburl'];
    
    $to = array();
    $admins = $db->GetArray("SELECT user_username, user_email FROM ".$dbPrefix."users");
    foreach ($admins as $a) {
        $to[] = array("name" => $a['user_username'], "address" => $a['user_email']);
    }
    pafiledb_mail($_POST['fromname'], $_POST['fromemail'], $to, 'Broken link reported at '.$settings[0]['dbname'], $message);

    smarty_redirect(lang('report_sent'), 'index.php?act=view&id='.$_GET['id']);
}

$smarty->assign('id', $_GET['id']);
//Fetch the category info from the database
// Generate the navbar. We're using the dropdown cache to save
// system resources.
$navbar = array();
$navbar[] = array('name' => lang('report_broken'), 'url' => '');
$navbar[] = array('name' => $file['file_name'], 'url' => '?act=view&id='.intval($_GET['id']));
$allcats = unserialize($settings[0]['dropdown']);
$tempcat = $file['file_catid'];
$templvl = -1; // 0 = start. We need to identify that this hasn't been set so -1 works 
for($x = count($allcats)-1; $x >= 0; $x--)
{
// Step #1 - Determine the level of the current category
// and then work our way down.
if ($templvl == -1 && $allcats[$x]['id'] == $tempcat)
{
  $navbar[] = array('name' => $allcats[$x]['name'], 'url' => '?act=category&id='.$allcats[$x]['id']);
  $templvl = $allcats[$x]['sub']-1;
}
else if ($templvl != -1 && $allcats[$x]['sub'] == $templvl)
{
  $navbar[] = array('name' => $allcats[$x]['name'], 'url' => '?act=category&id='.$allcats[$x]['id']);
  $templvl--;
  if ($templvl == -1)
  {
   break;
  }
}
}
$navbar[] = array('name' => $settings[0]['dbname'], 'url' => '');
// And then we reverse it for paFileDB
$navbar = array_reverse($navbar);
$smarty->assign('navbar', $navbar);

// We already handled the recursion so let's cheat and use it like a cache for the titlebar.
$title = array();
foreach ($navbar as $c)
{
  $title[] = $c['name'];
}
$smarty->assign('title', implode(' » ', $title));

?>

[Pikachu2000]

I should have said that the way the conditional is in the code, it doesn't matter what the result is, nothing happens. there's nothing to be executed if it evaluates to TRUE, nor is there an else{} for an evaluation of FALSE.

[R0CKY]

Ah, okay so I changed it to this...

 

//Make sure the spam response is valid

if ($_POST['spamcheck']=="recon")  {

smarty_error(lang('emptyfield'));

}

 

So basically if it fails antispam check, it does the same thing as if there was an empty field and rejects the form.

 

The thing is, I tried it, and it's working the opposite way, if the spam check passes, it is rejecting the form, and if the spam check fails, it is accepting the form!

 

Sorry, I am not very good at this and am just trying to bluff my way through! thanks.

[Pikachu2000]

Without knowing how you have the form set up, and what the value of $_POST['spamcheck'] is supposed to be, this is kind of a guess, but I'm assuming that the user either types 'recon' into a text field, or there's a checkbox that has the value 'recon'. If that's the case, change the comparison to != instead of == and see if that's what you're after.

[R0CKY]

Yeh I am asking the user to type "recon" to verify they are human.

 

I did the !+ thing and it worked, many thanks!

[EdwinPaul]

Without knowing how you have the form set up, and what the value of $_POST['spamcheck'] is supposed to be, this is kind of a guess, but I'm assuming that the user either types 'recon' into a text field, or there's a checkbox that has the value 'recon'. If that's the case, change the comparison to != instead of == and see if that's what you're after.

 

My mistake. I should have thought.    :'(

[R0CKY]

Thanks for your helps guys, it's great to finally have this sorted out.