Fighting Spam on Drupal

Introduction

Spam is an ever-present nuisance on the internet, and Drupal websites are no exception. Whether it's comment forms, contact pages, or user registration, spammers always find ways to infiltrate forms and clutter your website with irrelevant or malicious content. Fortunately, there are several effective strategies we can implement to fight spam and maintain a clean and user-friendly website. In this blog post, we will explore some valuable tips to protect Drupal forms from spammers.

We implement these techniques on our client's Drupal websites to help reduce or eliminate spam, but many of the same techniques can be used on other types of websites, like WordPress.

1. Enable CAPTCHA

One of the most common and effective methods to prevent automated spam bots from submitting forms is to integrate CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). CAPTCHA presents challenges that only humans can typically solve, like identifying distorted characters or solving simple puzzles. By adding CAPTCHA to Drupal forms, you can effectively deter automated spam submissions and ensure that only genuine users can access your site's features. We arent the biggest fans of CAPTCHA as it can be annoying for real users, so we rarely use this on our client's websites.

2. Use Honeypot Technique

The Honeypot technique is an invisible field that is placed in the form to deceive spam bots. As humans won't be able to see this field, they won't fill it, but spam bots might. By detecting this filled hidden field, you can identify and block spam submissions. Many Drupal modules provide easy integration of the Honeypot technique into your forms.

3. Implement Form Validation and Restrictions

Drupal offers a range of form validation options that you can leverage to add custom restrictions to your forms. For example, you can set minimum and maximum character limits, require specific input formats, or block specific keywords commonly associated with spam. Utilising Drupal's validation and restriction capabilities helps maintain the integrity of your forms while deterring spam submissions. One common trick that can be used is to prevent a form being submitted that contains a link.

4. Utilise IP Address and User Agent Analysis

Monitoring IP addresses and user agents can be a powerful way to identify spam patterns. Many spammers use multiple IP addresses or altered user agents to avoid detection, but analysing these details can still reveal suspicious activities. Drupal modules like "Spambot" and "Botscout" can assist in detecting and blocking known spam IPs and user agents. When we do analysis on our clients websites we nromally see that Spam comes from IP addresses associated with countries in Asia and South America, so we can even block these countries if spam is particuarily persistent.

5. Moderate Comments and Registrations

If your website allows user-generated content, enabling moderation for comments and user registrations can be a proactive approach to fight spam. Manual moderation allows you to review and approve content before it goes live, ensuring that only legitimate submissions make it to your site.

6. Consider Rate Limiting

Implementing rate limiting prevents spammers from bombarding your forms with multiple submissions in a short period. Rate limiting sets a threshold for the number of submissions a user can make within a specific timeframe, effectively restricting spammers from overwhelming your forms.

7. Keep Drupal Core and Modules Updated

Regularly updating Drupal core and modules is essential for security reasons. Developers continuously patch security vulnerabilities, and keeping your software up-to-date ensures you are benefiting from the latest security enhancements, reducing the risk of spam exploits.

Conclusion

Spam can be a persistent annoyance that disrupts the user experience and compromises the integrity of your Drupal website. However, by implementing the above strategies and staying vigilant, you can effectively fight spam on your Drupal forms. By leveraging CAPTCHA, Honeypot, form validation, and other security measures, you can maintain a cleaner, safer, and more user-friendly website. 

If you would like to discuss how we can protect your website from spam, get in touch.