Conflict with Search Plugin

  • Resolved darrenchu

    (@darrenchu)


    3 years, 2 months ago

    Hi,
    First of all, thank you for an amazing plugin! I’ve used it for at least a year and everything has been working perfectly. Today though, I realized there may be a conflict with a search plugin (Ajax Search Lite) I just installed.

    When going to my website (https://tradablepatterns.com) and using this search box from my Android Chrome or Brave browser and typing in keywords like Bitcoin, the search process takes much longer and then the webpage displays the following error:

    “We’re sorry, you are not allowed to proceed
    Your request looks suspiciously similar to automated requests from spam posting software or it has been denied by a security policy configured by the website administrator.

    If you believe you should be able to perform this request, please let us know.

    RID: 0FQKDPQXSCIB75IKFOHYSYEG”

    From the Activity tab of the Dashboard, I can see that there’s a “Spam form submission denied” message for each time I submit some keyword in the search box and get the error above. The strange bit is I’m able to submit the same keyword from my laptop web browsers and produce the results just fine. Also strangely, is that after getting the above error, if I simply reload the page searching the same keyword, the search results display properly.

    Interestingly, if I view the Activity entry that triggers “Spam form submission denied”, I see that the IP addresses indicated for my searches that trigger the error messages don’t match up with my mobile’s static IP address (when I Google for my current mobile’s IP). It appears that different IP addresses are being associated with my searches perhaps making it appear that the searches are coming from a spambot. My phone is currently using wifi with the phone IP address set to static but I’m assuming my external phone IP still changes due to my Wifi network relying on a DHCP IP assignment.

    Looking forward to any ideas and much appreciated in advance!

    Darren

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Thread Starter darrenchu

    (@darrenchu)

    Hi,
    I just wanted to add that I’ve also confirmed that within

    Anti-Spam Engine > Adjust Anti-Spam Engine > Safe Mode >

    I have: Use less restrictive policies (allow AJAX)

    I’m assuming there’s no need to whitelist URI strings if I’ve already selected the above allow AJAX setting?

    Thanks again,
    Darren

    Plugin Author gioni

    (@gioni)

    Hi! Yes. Unless you have an AJAX-based contact form, and you get spam through it.

    Thread Starter darrenchu

    (@darrenchu)

    Hi Gregory, so what would you suggest I do at this point?

    The Ajax form is just a Search box on my website, so I’m not worried about spam from this form. I have a website membership registration form which without Cerber, attracts a lot of spam registrations.

    As I’ve said, I already have my Anti-Spam Engine setting of “Use less restrictive policies (allow AJAX)”.

    Thank you in advance,
    Darren

    Plugin Author gioni

    (@gioni)

    Nothing. Your configuration is optimal.

    Thread Starter darrenchu

    (@darrenchu)

    Right, so what do think is triggering the false positives, and what are your thoughts on how we can resolve this? Am sure there are other users of Cerber who will have Ajax based search box forms triggering the warnings that I described in my original message above.

    Is the only solution for me to not use this search plugin?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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