Correct Format for Ban User Agents

  • Resolved HKP

    (@hiskingdomprophecy)


    2 years, 10 months ago

    Hi Folks,

    I want to ban “Bytespider” from my site.

    When I add in Custom Bans > Ban User Agents >
    the description as e.g.

    Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 8.0; Pixel 2 Build/OPD3.170816.012) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/56.0.1511.1269 Mobile Safari/537.36; Bytespider<br><br> Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 11_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/44.0.7997.1233 Mobile Safari/537.36; Bytespider

    All I get is the red notice: “The response is not a valid JSON response.”

    What is the correct format to Ban User Agents, so I can block “Bytespider“?

    Regards and thanks!

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • nlpro

    (@nlpro)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    Hi @hiskingdomprophecy,

    Simply enter Bytespider (and Save). Then check out the section:

    # Ban User Agents - Security > Settings > Banned Users

    that gets added to your .htaccess file.

    +++ To prevent any confusion, I’m not iThemes +++

    Thread Starter HKP

    (@hiskingdomprophecy)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    @nlpro

    Thank you, but that does not work.
    I still get the same RED error message “The response is not a valid JSON response.” and .htaccess is not updated with new names.


    nlpro

    (@nlpro)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    @hiskingdomprophecy,

    Ok, so it appears the error is generic when saving the Ban Users changed settings. Even when you leave the BAN USER AGENTS box empty? (You do need to make a change in the settings for the Save button to become active). Are you able to change other iTSec plugin settings and save those changes?

    Thread Starter HKP

    (@hiskingdomprophecy)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    @nlpro
    I have now checked and each save on any of the “Ban Users” of “Local Brute Force” boxes gives a red error message “The response is not a valid JSON response.”
    So I can change nothing.
    FYI, under “Tools” I can Run, View or flush the generated wp-config.php rules and that does not give an error message.

    nlpro

    (@nlpro)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    Hi @hiskingdomprophecy,

    I see in the history that you opened a similar topic in the past. Can you verify with your hosting that the OPTIONS http method is enabled in your server env? (I noticed that you still only seem to have the GET, HEAD and POST http methods).

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by nlpro.
    Thread Starter HKP

    (@hiskingdomprophecy)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    @nlpro

    My hosts have changed my settings and now the OPTIONS http method is now enabled.

    However there is no change, and any save in Custom Bans tab results in the red error warning notice.

    Any other suggestions?

    nlpro

    (@nlpro)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    @hiskingdomprophecy,

    Just send an OPTIONS request for http://www.hiskingdomprophecy.com and received the following response:

    405 Method Not Allowed

    The requested method OPTIONS is not allowed for this URL.

    Thread Starter HKP

    (@hiskingdomprophecy)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    @nlpro

    Thanks for your help! Our Host has fixed the issue and the OPTIONS http method is now enabled and it is working correctly, so it seems.

    I have tested the plugin and there are no Warning Notices.

    I have also checked the .htaccess file and “Bytespider“ has now been added, so the plugin seems to be working again as designed.

    All I need to do now is to wait and see if this will stop Bytespider from downloading the whole site again.

    Again, regards and thanks,
    Angus

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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