libcgi-application-plugin-ratelimit-perl - 1.0-4 main

CGI::Application::Plugin::RateLimit provides protection against a user
calling a runmode too frequently. A typical use-case might be a contact form
that sends email. You'd like to allow your users to send you messages, but
thousands of messages from a single user would be a problem.
.
This module works by maintaining a database of hits to protected runmodes. It
then checks this database to determine if a new hit should be allowed based
on past activity by the user. The user's identity is, by default, tied to
login (via REMOTE_USER) or IP address (via REMOTE_IP) if login info is not
available. You may provide your own identity function via the
identity_callback() method.
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To use this module you must create a table in your database with the
following schema (using MySQL-syntax, although other DBs may work as well
with minor alterations):
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CREATE TABLE rate_limit_hits (
user_id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
action VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
timestamp UNSIGNED INTEGER NOT NULL,
INDEX (user_id, action, timestamp)
);
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You may feel free to vary the storage-type and size of user_id and action to
match your usage. For example, if your identity_callback() always returns an
integer you could make user_id an integer column.
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This table should be periodically cleared of old data. Anything older than the
maximum timeframe being used can be safely deleted.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: The protection offered by this module is not perfect.
Identifying a user on the internet is very hard and a sophisticated attacker
can work around these checks, by switching IPs or automating login creation.