nabble/semalt-blocker

Block referral spammers from visiting your site and ruining your stats

Don't use this project

The list of spammy domains is stale and without any update since 2016

> Read original blogpost which inspired this project: Semalt infecting computers to spam the web.

, _(*1)

semalt-blocker

Self-updating PHP library which blocks hundreds of spammy domains from ruining your website statistics

Block referral spam with a single line of code. Originally started to stop the nasty Semalt botnet from visiting your site and ruining your stats (of course their domains are still included), the blocklist now contains hundreds of spammy domains. The library will try to self-update every week, so you don't have to worry about composer update's., _(*2)

blocklist

Looking for the blocklist only? No problem:, _(*3)

• txt
• json
• csv
• xml
• apache
• annotated

sources

The blocklist is compiled from several sources. Currently:, _(*4)

debug console

We've added a tool to check whether your site blocks spammy bots. You can find it in the repository and online at: nabble.nl/semalt, _(*5)

composer setup

This is the easiest method, but requires the use of Composer. Add semalt-blocker to your project by running the following in your terminal:, _(*6)

composer require nabble/semalt-blocker:~1

Then in your project add (but you probably already have this):, _(*7)

require "vendor/autoload.php";

legacy setup

Not using composer? No problem, copy the files domains/blocked and compact/semaltblocker.php to the same directory in your project and add this line:, _(*8)

require "/path/to/semaltblocker.php";

basic usage

It's as easy as:, _(*9)

use Nabble\SemaltBlocker\Blocker;

Blocker::protect();

// ... your app

Make sure you add it somewhere at the beginning of your code, it will save you!, _(*10)

self-update

In order for the self-update mechanism to work, make sure the domains/blocked file is writable by the webserver:, _(*11)

$ chmod a+w vendor/nabble/semalt-blocker/domains/blocked

options

Blocker::protect(); // default, serve a 403 Forbidden response
Blocker::protect('http://semalt.com'); // return them their own botnet traffic
Blocker::protect('Hi, bot'); // displays a nice message when blocked

All calls to the protect function will trigger the auto-updater at a regular interval., _(*12)

If you want to stay in control even more, use this:, _(*13)

$blocked = Blocker::blocked(); // returns true when a blocked referrer is detected

If you want an explanation for why a referer is blocked, use:, _(*14)

echo Blocker::explain();

The self-updater runs every 7 days by default. To force updating the domain list, use this:, _(*15)

use Nabble\SemaltBlocker\Updater;

Updater::update(true);

contribute

Yes, please! Feel free to open issues or pull-requests., _(*16)

licence

MIT, _(*17)