Extension:AntiSpoof

MediaWiki extensions manual

AntiSpoof Release status: stable
Implementation	User activity
Description	Prevents the creation of confusable usernames.
Author(s)	Brion Vibber (Brion VIBBERtalk)
Compatibility policy	Snapshots releases along with MediaWiki. Master is not backward compatible.
MediaWiki	1.25+
Database changes	Yes
Tables	spoofuser
License	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Parameters $wgAntiSpoofProhibitedCharacters $wgAntiSpoofAccounts
Added rights override-antispoof
Hooks used DeleteAccount LoadExtensionSchemaUpdates LocalUserCreated RenameUserComplete
Translate the AntiSpoof extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Check usage and version matrix.
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The AntiSpoof extension is an extension for preventing confusable usernames from being created. It blocks the creation of accounts with mixed-script, confusing and similar usernames.

For example, if user John Doe is already registered, the extension will block attempts to register:

• joHn dOE (capital letters in different places)
• Jοhn Doe ("ο" in Jοhn is Greek small letter omicron)
• John Dоe ("о" in Dоe is Cyrillic small letter O)
• Јohn Doe ("Ј" in Јohn is Cyrillic capital letter Je)
• John Đoe ("Đ" in Đoe is Latin capital letter D with stroke)
• Jóhn Doe ("ó" in Jóhn is Latin small letter O with acute)
• John ​Doe (there is a Zero-width space before Doe)
• Jøhn Doe ("ø" in Jøhn is Scandinavian oe)
• J0hn Doe ("0" is the number zero)

etc.

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called AntiSpoof in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

  wfLoadExtension( 'AntiSpoof' );
  

• Run the update script which will automatically create the necessary database tables that this extension needs.
• In case user accounts are stored in a shared database, add:

$wgSharedTables[] = 'spoofuser';

• Run the batchAntiSpoof.php script from the command line to pre-populate the spoofuser table with your wiki's existing usernames.

php extensions/AntiSpoof/maintenance/batchAntiSpoof.php

•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.
• To verify that it's working, try creating an account for username "Adm1n"; most wikis have an "Admin" account and so AntiSpoof should reject this lookalike username with a message like "The name Adm1n is too similar to the existing account: Admin".

When installing from Git, please note that this extension requires Composer.

So, after installation from Git change to the directory containing the extension e.g. "../extensions/AntiSpoof/" and run composer install --no-dev, or when updating: composer update --no-dev.

Alternatively as well as preferably add the line "extensions/AntiSpoof/composer.json" to the "composer.local.json" file in the root directory of your wiki like e.g.

{
	"extra": {
		"merge-plugin": {
			"include": [
				"extensions/AntiSpoof/composer.json"
			]
		}
	}
}

See also

• Equivset (provides the equivalence sets used by AntiSpoof)