[Commons-l] [Foundation-l] Cookie based blocking and bug #3233. A quick hack implimented on commons.

Tue Dec 12 11:36:02 UTC 2006

How can the MAC address be read out using javascript?

Bryan

On 12/12/06, Jeffrey V. Merkey <jmerkey at wolfmountaingroup.com> wrote:
>
>
> A better solution is to embed the MAC address of the workstation into
> the cookie itself, so you can track someone no matter what account
> or IP they use.
>
> Jeff
>
>
> Gregory Maxwell wrote:
>
>
> >A cookie is a piece of data stored by a website in your web browser
> >and made available to that site when you use the site.  (see [[HTTP
> >cookie]] for more info)
> >
> >For a while people have thought it would be useful to use cookies as
> >part of our blocking system.  The idea is that when a user is blocked,
> >mediawiki would give them a cookie to indicate that they are blocked.
> >This would then inhibit them from editing even if they changed IPs.
> >The primary limitation to this approach is that any terminologically
> >savvy user could easily remove the cookie.
> >
> >There is a request filed for this feature
> >(http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3233) along with a
> >patch, but this patch has not yet been merged into mediawiki.
> >
> >Because interest for this feature keeps reoccurring, I threw together
> >a quick hack using javascript. This method of implementation allows us
> >to experiment and gauge the value of the approach without distracting
> >the core developers with more code to merge and support.
> >
> >This could be implemented by any admin on an of our wiks.
> >http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Monobook.js&diff=prev&oldid=3757203
> >
> >Like all cookie based solutions, it is easy to bypass. Its primary
> >disadvantage compared to the mediawiki patch is that it is not
> >integrated with the block page, to activate a cookie based block you
> >must make a separate edit to the target user's javascript.
> >
> >The current behavior blocks all uploads and edits by the impacted
> >browser, but it would be fairly trivial to make the function more like
> >regular blocking... or even more fine grained with per-namespace or
> >per article blocks. The current behavior also renews the block for 24
> >hours every time the user *views* a page while logged in as the
> >blocked user. This too could be trivially changed.
> >
> >If anyone tries this out or improves it, please let me know. I pretty
> >much learned javascript in order to do this.. and it only took about
> >15 minutes to do, so don't expect it to work miracles but it should
> >work as advertised.
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> >
> >
> >
>
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