Blacklist

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  1. Blacklist

The Blacklist is a critical feature within MediaWiki installations, serving as a powerful tool for administrators and moderators to control undesirable content and prevent disruptive editing. This article provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and utilizing the Blacklist, geared towards beginners. We will cover its purpose, functionality, configuration, and practical applications.

== What is the Blacklist?

The Blacklist is a system within MediaWiki that allows administrators to define patterns – typically regular expressions – that, when encountered in user input (such as edit summaries, article content, usernames, or email addresses), will block the action. Essentially, it's a preemptive defense against spam, vandalism, and other forms of abuse. Rather than reacting *after* harmful content is published, the Blacklist *prevents* it from being saved in the first place.

Think of it like a security guard at the entrance to a building, checking IDs and refusing entry to anyone on a pre-defined list or exhibiting suspicious behavior. In this analogy, the "building" is your wiki, the "security guard" is the Blacklist, and "suspicious behavior" is defined by the patterns you configure.

== Why Use a Blacklist?

There are several compelling reasons to implement and maintain a robust Blacklist:

  • **Spam Prevention:** A common use case is blocking known spam URLs, advertisements, or promotional content. Spammers often employ automated bots to flood wikis with irrelevant links.
  • **Vandalism Deterrence:** The Blacklist can prevent the insertion of offensive language, personal attacks, or disruptive edits.
  • **Account Creation Control:** It can block the creation of usernames that violate wiki policies (e.g., containing offensive terms, impersonating others, or resembling bot accounts).
  • **Email Address Protection:** Preventing the posting of email addresses protects users' privacy and reduces the risk of spam harvesting.
  • **Preventing Circumvention of Filters:** The Blacklist can be used to block variations of terms already filtered by other systems like the abuse filter. It offers a granular level of control.
  • **Protecting Against Malicious Code:** While not its primary purpose, the Blacklist can potentially block attempts at injecting malicious code (though dedicated security measures are recommended for this).
  • **Maintaining Wiki Quality:** By proactively preventing undesirable content, the Blacklist contributes to a cleaner, more professional, and more user-friendly wiki environment.

== How Does the Blacklist Work?

The Blacklist operates by comparing user input against a set of regular expressions. When a match is found, the action associated with the Blacklist entry is triggered. This action is typically to prevent the operation (e.g., saving the edit, creating the account).

Here's a breakdown of the process:

1. **User Input:** A user attempts to perform an action, such as editing a page, creating an account, or submitting a form. 2. **Pattern Matching:** The MediaWiki software checks the user's input against the regular expressions defined in the Blacklist. 3. **Match Found:** If a match is found between the input and a Blacklist pattern, the configured action is executed. 4. **Action Taken:** The action usually involves displaying an error message to the user, preventing the operation from completing, and logging the event for administrative review. The error message can be customized. 5. **No Match:** If no match is found, the operation proceeds as normal.

== Accessing and Configuring the Blacklist

Administrators access the Blacklist through the Special:Blacklist page. This page provides a web interface for managing Blacklist entries. To reach this page, simply append `/Special:Blacklist` to your wiki's URL (e.g., `https://yourwiki.com/Special:Blacklist`).

The Blacklist interface is divided into several sections:

  • **Add Entry:** This section allows you to create new Blacklist entries. You'll need to specify:
   *   **Pattern:** The regular expression to match.  This is the core of the entry.  Understanding regular expressions is crucial (see section below).
   *   **Comment:** A descriptive comment explaining the purpose of the entry.  This is invaluable for future maintenance and troubleshooting.
   *   **Action:**  The action to take when a match is found. The default action is to block the input.
   *   **Namespace:** Restrict the pattern matching to specific namespaces (e.g., Article, User, MediaWiki).  Leaving this blank applies the pattern globally.
  • **Entry List:** This section displays a list of existing Blacklist entries. You can sort the list by various criteria, such as pattern, comment, or creation date.
  • **Edit/Delete:** Each entry in the list has options to edit or delete it.

== Understanding Regular Expressions (Regex)

Regular expressions are a powerful tool for defining patterns in text. They are essential for effectively using the Blacklist. Here's a very basic introduction:

  • `.` (dot): Matches any single character.
  • `*` (asterisk): Matches the preceding character zero or more times.
  • `+` (plus): Matches the preceding character one or more times.
  • `?` (question mark): Matches the preceding character zero or one time.
  • `[]` (square brackets): Defines a character class. For example, `[abc]` matches 'a', 'b', or 'c'.
  • `()` (parentheses): Groups characters together.
  • `|` (pipe): Represents "or". For example, `cat|dog` matches either "cat" or "dog".
  • `\`: Escapes special characters. For example, `\.` matches a literal dot.
  • `^`: Matches the beginning of a string.
  • `$`: Matches the end of a string.
    • Example:**

The regular expression `http://.*\.com` would match any string that starts with "http://" and ends with ".com", with any characters in between.

    • Resources for learning Regular Expressions:**

== Practical Blacklist Examples

Here are some examples of Blacklist entries:

  • **Blocking Spam URLs:** `http://example\.com/spam` (Blocks a specific spam URL)
  • **Blocking Multiple Spam Domains:** `(http://spamdomain1\.com%7Chttp://spamdomain2\.net%7Chttp://spamdomain3\.org)` (Blocks several spam domains)
  • **Blocking Offensive Words:** `[f|F][u|U][c|C][k|K]` (Blocks the word "fuck" case-insensitively) *Use with caution and consider the implications of blocking potentially legitimate uses of words.*
  • **Blocking Username Patterns:** `^bot[0-9]+$` (Blocks usernames that start with "bot" followed by one or more digits)
  • **Blocking Email Address Harvesting:** `\b[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z|a-z]{2,}\b` (Attempts to block the posting of email addresses – *this regex can be complex and may require adjustment*).
  • **Blocking IP Addresses:** `^192\.168\.1\.100$` (Blocks a specific IP address)

== Best Practices for Blacklist Management

  • **Be Specific:** Avoid overly broad patterns that might block legitimate content. The more specific your regex, the fewer false positives you'll encounter.
  • **Comment Thoroughly:** Always add a clear and concise comment explaining the purpose of each entry. This will save you time and effort when you need to maintain the Blacklist.
  • **Test Regularly:** Test your Blacklist entries to ensure they are working as expected and are not causing unintended consequences. Use a regex tester to validate your patterns.
  • **Monitor Logs:** Regularly review the MediaWiki logs to identify blocked attempts and assess the effectiveness of your Blacklist.
  • **Keep it Updated:** Spammers and vandals are constantly evolving their tactics. Keep your Blacklist updated with new patterns to stay ahead of the curve.
  • **Consider the Abuse Filter:** The Blacklist is a powerful tool, but it's often best used in conjunction with the AbuseFilter extension, which provides more advanced features and flexibility.
  • **False Positives:** Be prepared to address false positives. Users may legitimately use terms that are blocked by your Blacklist. Have a process for reviewing and adjusting entries as needed.
  • **Regular Expression Complexity:** Avoid overly complex regular expressions unless absolutely necessary. Complex expressions can be difficult to maintain and may impact performance.

== Blacklist vs. Abuse Filter

While both the Blacklist and the Abuse Filter aim to prevent abuse, they differ in their approach.

  • **Blacklist:** A simple pattern-matching system that blocks actions based on predefined regular expressions. It's a "hard block."
  • **Abuse Filter:** A more sophisticated system that uses a rule-based engine to analyze edits and flag potentially abusive content. It can perform more complex checks, such as evaluating the context of an edit and assigning scores based on the severity of the abuse. It allows for warnings, tagging, and more nuanced responses. AbuseFilter offers more flexibility and control.

In many cases, the Abuse Filter is the preferred solution for complex abuse prevention scenarios. However, the Blacklist remains a valuable tool for simple, straightforward blocking tasks.

== Advanced Considerations

  • **Namespaces:** Utilize namespaces to restrict Blacklist patterns to specific areas of your wiki. This minimizes the risk of unintended consequences in other areas.
  • **Action Customization:** While the default action is to block the input, you can explore other options, such as logging the event without blocking it (for monitoring purposes).
  • **External Blacklists:** You can integrate your wiki with external Blacklists of known spam URLs or malicious domains.
  • **Regular Expression Performance:** Be mindful of the performance impact of complex regular expressions. Optimize your patterns to minimize the load on your server.
  • **Collaboration:** Encourage collaboration among administrators and moderators to share Blacklist patterns and best practices.

== Resources & Further Reading



AbuseFilter MediaWiki Extension Regular expression Spam Vandalism Manual:Configuration Special:Blacklist Help:Contents Help:Editing

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