I'm thinking about writing an automatic spam protection system (maybe I will write a public gem) for rails.
My concept is to include a helper method in application_controller f.e.:
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
automatic_captcha_redirect(:min_time => 30.seconds :limit => 50)
...
end
Then I want to include automatical a before_filter in every controller, which checks, if the current request is via post, put or delete-method.
If the user's last post-request is smaller than :min_time, then the request should be redirected to an captcha-input-page (the posted user-data resides in hidden html fields).
# before_filter :check_spam
def check_spam
if !request.get? && session[:last_manipulation_at]
&& session[:last_manipulation_at] >= DateTime.now - 30.seconds
redirect_to captcha_path
# (doesn't know yet how to handle the post data to
# display in hidden fields in the spam-captcha-form)
end
end
And in captcha.haml
=form_tag
-request.params.each do |key, value|
=hidden_field_tag key, value
=captcha_image
=submit_button_tag
If the user submits the right captcha-word, his data will be posted to the right action.
Do you think thats realizable? Any critics or suggestions? Or an idea how to realize this behaviour?
EDIT:
EDIT:
First structure of processing (as non rack-app - I dont know how to write rack apps):
0) Settings in environment.rb
auto_recaptcha[:limit] = 10
auto_recaptcha[:min_time] = 1.minute
1) User posts data
Check last_manipulation and max. amount of allowed manipultations in application_controller.rb
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
before_filter :automatic_captcha_redirect
def automatic_captcha_redirect
session[:last_manipulation_at][:manipultation] = [] unless session[:last_manipulation_at][:manipultation]
# Checks if requests are falling under the specifications for showing captcha
if !request.get?
&& session[:last_manipulation_at][:date] > DateTime.now - auto_recaptcha[:min_time]
&& session[:last_manipulation_at][:manipultation].count < auto_recaptcha[:limit]
# If user answered captcha, verify it
if !verify_captcha(params)
@url = request.url
@params = request.params
render "layouts/captcha.haml"
else
# Add successfull manipulation to counter
session[:last_manipulation_at][:manipultation] << DateTime.now
session[:last_manipulation_at][:date] = DateTime.now
end
end
end
end
captcha.haml
-form_tag @url do
-request.params.each do |key, value|
=hidden_field_tag key, value
=captcha_image
=submit_button_tag
2) ... ... ...
last) Post userdata to the right location
post(params) => users_path # path "/users" with method: post
One way this could be put together:
Middleware/rails metal component that monitors the requests and adds the information to the rack session.
Controller helpers for before_filters on things that might need captchas
View helpers for displaying the captchas
You could make the captcha rate adjustable through the args passing mechanism of use
#config/environment.rb
config.middleware.use 'CaptchaMiddleware',:period=>5.minutes,:limit=>50,:captcha_url=>'/captcha'
Also, this should not rely on hidden form fields because a determined bot writer could just change the value they are posting to your server code.
Simple middleware example code(slightly better than a stab in the dark, but still)
class CaptchaMiddleware
def initialize app,options
@app = app
@options=options
end
def update_stats!
#session based,on account of laziness
session[:reqs] ||= []
session[:reqs].reject!{ |request| request < Time.now - @options[:period]}
session[:reqs] << Time.now
end
def over_limit?
session[:reqs].length > @options[:limit]
end
def call env
@env = env
if @env["REQUEST_METHOD"]!='GET'
update_stats!
if over_limit?
return [302,{"Location: #{options[:captcha_url]}"},'']
end
end
@app.call env
end
def session
@env["rack.session"]
end
end