Rewrite Request URI not working

[guillermo5000]

I have forum that is under attack by spammers. The bots are posting with a common URI that I'm hoping to block.

If I can block any URI that contains "coppa_pass=1", an adult verification system that my board does not use, then I can greatly reduce the spam to my forum.

The entire request is:
[#*$!#*$!.org...]

Below is my feeble attempt at blocking "coppa", but it doesn't seem to work.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/*coppa [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [R=301,L]

Any advice is greatly appriciated!

[phranque]

try this:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} coppa [NC]

[guillermo5000]

Thank you, but that doesn't seem to work either. :(

[phranque]

do you have RewriteEngine on and all that?

[jdMorgan]

The main problem is that if the rule matches, you're redirecting to the original URL anyway, so executing the rule doesn't actually do anything. Instead of a redirect, you need to return a 403-Forbidden response using [F] -- or perhaps redirect to somewhere else (not recommended, as it is bad 'Web citizenship').

Assuming your code goes into the /cgi-bin/.htaccess file, you could use:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} coppa [NC]
RewriteRule ^ib3/ikonboard\.cgi$ - [F]

The code *will* need to change, depending on where you put it. If /cgi-bin is an aliased directory (and this is quite common on shared hosting), then you cannot (easily) affect any access to that directory using a .htaccess file in your Web root -- The .htaccess code almost always has to go into the /cgi-bin directory itself.

Jim

[guillermo5000]

I've tried that code, it does not work either. I've also tried JP's first line with a redirect to one of my other sites with no success.

You are correct, my .htaccess is in the cgi-bin and I am on a shared host server.

Are you saying it is not possable to do what I want on a shared server? Thanks all!

P.S. rewrites are ON

[guillermo5000]

I'm sorry it's JD. :}

[guillermo5000]

Aha! I've made it work! (with your help) Using QUERY_STRING and then redirecting to another site.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} coppa [NC]
RewriteRule ^.*$ [MYotherSITE.org...] [R=301,L]

This code also works, returning a 403 error:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} coppa [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

Clearly I need to read up on QUERY_STRING, I've never uses that before. I assummed that anything in the page address is URI.

Thank you all for help.

[jdMorgan]

Yes, except that a query string *is not* part of a page address (URL); It is data attached to a URL to be passed *to* that page address. That is why it is handled separately in the server variables. :)

Jim