Bugzilla spammers are changing tactics
Hi, For a couple months now, Bugzilla spammers have changed tactics and are now leaving (possibly AI-generated?) comments without any obvious spam links, e.g.: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=192753#c31 The spam comment will look somewhat related to the content of the bug report, but won't actually contribute to the discussion. The purpose of these spam comments is unclear since without links there can be no SEO spam. Maybe they think it helps them build reputation to avoid us removing their future comments that will actually include links? Whatever. This is a heads-up to be on the lookout for the new strange type of spam. What's the correct procedure to report spam? I had been mailing <admin@webkit.org> each time I see it, but there is also a spam tag we can add to posts to hide them. Is the spam tag adequate, or is that not good enough to actually ban the spammer? Michael
Le lundi 17 février 2025 15:26:45 (+01:00), Michael Catanzaro via webkit-dev a écrit :
Hi,
For a couple months now, Bugzilla spammers have changed tactics and are now leaving (possibly AI-generated?) comments without any obvious spam links, e.g.:
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=192753#c31
The spam comment will look somewhat related to the content of the bug report, but won't actually contribute to the discussion. The purpose of these spam comments is unclear since without links there can be no SEO spam. Maybe they think it helps them build reputation to avoid us removing their future comments that will actually include links? Whatever. This is a heads-up to be on the lookout for the new strange type of spam.
On other bugtrackers we have found similar behavior, with the bot coming back later to edit the comment and add links. Sometimes editing old posts does not trigger as much notifications, and this can go unnoticed. We suspect that our bugtracker is targetted because, while we delete the spam comments pretty quickly, all comments are sent to a mailing list, which is publicly archived. So that makes it a target worth some efforts for the spammer. I don't know if there are similar archives for WebKit Bugzilla that could explain why it is targeted as well. Good luck fighting with the spammers, -- Adrien / PulkoMandy
On Mon, Feb 17 2025 at 03:01:45 PM +00:00:00, Adrien Destugues via webkit-dev <webkit-dev@lists.webkit.org> wrote:
On other bugtrackers we have found similar behavior, with the bot coming back later to edit the comment and add links. Sometimes editing old posts does not trigger as much notifications, and this can go unnoticed.
This would almost make sense, except it's not possible to edit Bugzilla comments! :)
Hi, Emailling admin@webkit.org <mailto:admin@webkit.org> is good. The tag isn't watched by the admins. Adding it will collapse the comment, but won't fully hide it, and won't ban the spammer. - Alexey 17 февр. 2025 г., в 6:26 AM, Michael Catanzaro via webkit-dev <webkit-dev@lists.webkit.org> написал(а): Hi, For a couple months now, Bugzilla spammers have changed tactics and are now leaving (possibly AI-generated?) comments without any obvious spam links, e.g.: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=192753#c31 The spam comment will look somewhat related to the content of the bug report, but won't actually contribute to the discussion. The purpose of these spam comments is unclear since without links there can be no SEO spam. Maybe they think it helps them build reputation to avoid us removing their future comments that will actually include links? Whatever. This is a heads-up to be on the lookout for the new strange type of spam. What's the correct procedure to report spam? I had been mailing <admin@webkit.org> each time I see it, but there is also a spam tag we can add to posts to hide them. Is the spam tag adequate, or is that not good enough to actually ban the spammer? Michael _______________________________________________ webkit-dev mailing list webkit-dev@lists.webkit.org https://lists.webkit.org/mailman/listinfo/webkit-dev
participants (3)
-
Adrien Destugues
-
Alexey Proskuryakov
-
Michael Catanzaro