Cookie Stuffing Detector [Inside- What is Cookie Stuffing and Why you Should Care]

Cookie Stuffing Detector [Inside- What is Cookie Stuffing and Why you Should Care]

Mod Version: 1.0, by sockwater

This modification is in the archives.

vB Version: 3.7.x	Rating: (3 votes - 5.00 average)	Installs: 44
Released: 04 Sep 2008	Last Update: 04 Sep 2008	Downloads: 163
Not Supported Uses Plugins Auto-Template Is in Beta Stage

This modification will help protect your boards against cookie stuffing scams.

What is Cookie Stuffing
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_stuffing:

Cookie stuffing or cookie dropping is a Blackhat technique used to generate fraudulent affiliate sales. It involves placing an affiliate tracking cookie on a website visitor's computer without their knowledge, which will then generate revenue for the person doing the cookie stuffing. Income is generated when the affected user visits the target affiliate site and either creates an account or makes a purchase, depending on the terms of the affiliate agreement. This not only generates fraudulent affiliate sales, but also has the potential to overwrite legitimate affiliates' cookies, essentially stealing their legitimately earned commissions.

Operators of websites that allow user-generated content, such as forums that allow users to post, should be aware of this technique in order to protect their visitors from this attack. Cookie stuffing can be accomplished with as little as including an image in a forum post.

People can use your boards for this illegitimate practice if you don't protect yourself
There are several techniques for cookie stuffing, one of which works on most vBulletin forums. I'll put the following in code tags so only licensed vB owners can read it.

Code:

A user can add an [img] bbcode in a post and put an 
affiliate page as the URL.  That's all it takes to plant a 
cookie with their affiliate tracking code on the computers 
of everyone who views that post.

If you don't want people doing this, read on.

What this mod does

Code:

This modification inserts some Javascript on each 
thread page when a moderator or admin is viewing 
the thread.  This Javascript counts how many [IMG] 
tags are in each post, and then tries to check if a 
given image is a valid image.  If there is a mismatch, 
it will display a warning message at the top of the 
post alerting the mod/admin to the fact.  There is the 
possibility of false positives if an image takes an 
inordinate amount of time to load.  If you want to 
check for that possibility, there is a "recheck" link in 
the message, whereby you can recheck the images 
in that post.

Installation
Import the product XML file in your Product Manager, then visit the Options group "Cookie Stuffing Detector Options".

After installation, you can check if this is working by creating a post and ....

Code:

including an image with an invalid URL, such as: 
[img]http://example.com/adslkdfaslkjdsfkjldfsakjlsdfakj/[/img]
which should show up as a cookie stuffing attempt.

Future development
I am planning to expand this mod to:

Scan all posts in the database for possible cookie stuffing attempts.
Check posts when the user submits them for cookie stuffing attempts, and reject the post.

Known issues / Caveats

Broken images will cause false positives
This is marked as a 3.7.x mod, because that is what I developed it on and what I use it on. It has a good chance of working on 3.6.x as well, but I haven't tested that.
All admins and mods (even when viewing a forum they are not a mod in) will see the message in a post if it is a possible cookie stuffing attempt. This is by design.

Tested in... (on Windows XP)

Firefox 3
Internet Explorer 7
Opera 9.5
Safari 3
Google Chrome?!

Download

This modification is archived, downloads are still allowed.

product-anticookiestuffing.xml (8.2 KB, 181 downloads)

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