[webmasters] new exploits: email forms, link forms

BigBiz.com Tech Support (info@bigbiz.com)
Fri, 6 Jul 2001 17:37:56 -0700 (PWT)

Hello

We have noticed increased activity from spammers and other internet
abusers targetting email feedback forms, and free-link-for-all type
scripts.  The exploits we have noticed so far:

feedback forms, email forms:
  Spammers abuse your script to send emails to 3rd parties.  The email
  will appear to have originated from your domain so you get blamed.
  If you employ these types of scripts on your site please check them
  to make sure they DO NOT send emails to the internet - hardcode them
  to send email only to you.  We especially notice abuse of
  the script "formmail" from Matts Script Archive.  Frequently these
  are being hit by robots that post spam to your script hundreds or
  even thousands of times.

  You are responsible for emails originating from your server.  If the
  emails fall into the category of "spam" we may need to take appropriate
  action to make sure it doesnt happen - it can be as drastic as
  deactivating your account, so please make sure your scripts can't be
  abused in a way that would affect your account.

link-for-all scripts:
  We are noticing increased activity from what appears to be robots
  searching out link-for-all scripts and then "stuffing" your pages
  with hundreds of URLs.  While this doesn't fall into the category
  of abuse for our AUP (acceptable use policy), we are informing you
  that this type of exploit is being actively persued.  We leave it
  up to you to decide if you want to continue to employ such scripts
  on your site.

If you have any questions please  email support@bigbiz.com