Don't create anonymous contacts on Mautic system pages

Product Support
1

Your software
My Mautic version is: 3.3.2
My PHP version is: 7.4.3

Your problem
Right after installing Mautic, anonymous contacts started to appear. I’m new to Mautic so it took me some time to understand why this happens. The concept is clear to me now; Mautic tracks as many contacts as possible from your website and these can be “upgraded” when more info (like name, email, etc) is captured. Great concept!

However, I fail to understand why Mautic also creates anonymous contacts from (bot) visitors on 404 pages from the Mautic installation itself. I have not added any tracking info to these pages (they’re system generated anyway). My Mautic installation is running on a subdomain which is used for administrative purposes only, so I never want to track any visitor on this domain.

Is it possible to set this up somehow, or to disable the tracking from Mautic 404 pages? I did find some similar issues Bots are creating anonymous contacts in my AWS hosted mautic instance and Ghost contact IDs - #5 by biz-rolodex but the first doesn’t offer any solutions. The second suggests to install a manually patched version of Mautic, but that’s something I don’t want to prevent any future upgrade issues.

Or am I just complaining about a non-issue, and should I find a way to learn to live with (thousands of) unused anonymous contacts?

2

Did you ever find a solution to this? Just wondering if its a security issue - I have hundred of anonymous contacts being created every day from all over the world. And I only stood up the EC2 instance of mautic a few days ago with a domain that is not located anywhere on the internet.

3

Unfortunately I’ve never found a solution to this issue. I don’t think it’s a real security issue, it’s just a visible result of the fact that there will always be bots scanning your server. Normally you won’t notice as it generates a 404 and that’s it, but because Mautic creates contacts for all these hits, it’s suddenly visible.

Your comment (a domain not located anywhere) triggered a thought though. You might want to look at your Apache virtualhost config and see where traffic without ServerName is routed to. In my case Apache falls back to the first available virtualhost config which, unsurprisingly, is my Mautic installation. Thus, all bot traffic scanning on IP addresses gets directed to Mautic.

I added a “catch all” config to just drop all this traffic; let’s see if this has any effect:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName catchall
    <Location />
        Order allow,deny
        Deny from all
    </Location>
</VirtualHost>

And if you do this, don’t forget to do the same for port 443.

1 Like
4

Interesting. Thank you for responding and also providing a solution (or at least a work-around). What you described must be the issue as Mautic is the only thing I’m running on that server. I’ll give it a go, also.

5

You’re welcome. This tweak seems to work well for me, the amount of anonymous contacts has dropped significantly since implementing it a few days ago :slight_smile:

6

Hey @zoefff - if you’ve got a minute, where do you actually put that virtualhost code? In an existing .conf file? I have a few under apache2 and added your code block as a second virtualhost at the top of the ssl one (000-default-le-ssl.conf), and restarted apache but it broke the server. Just deleted it to get it back, but clearly thats not the correct spot!

Or do you to create a separate site in apache? I’m googling, but haven’t found this answer in some apache forums.

Thanks, again.

7

It’s up to you what you want to do; either add additional config to an existing file or create a separate config for every vhost. I would do the latter to keep things organized.

The issue is probably something different. My code fragment should work on port 80, but it’s an incomplete configuration for port 443. You can find the minimum required directives for a SSL configuration in the Apache documentation. There’s usually some sort of default configuration you can use or copy, on my (Ubuntu) server it’s called default-ssl.conf.

1 Like
8

Hi! How can edit this in cpanel?

9

No clue. That’s probably something to ask on their support platform :slight_smile:

1 Like
10

50%-60% of all internet traffic is bots/spiders. Add this to your .htaccess file if you want to block the bad ones

1. RewriteEngine on

2. # Abuse Agent Blocking

3. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^[Ww]eb[Bb]andit [NC,OR]

4. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$ [NC,OR]

5. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Acunetix [NC,OR]

6. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^binlar [NC,OR]

7. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^BlackWidow [NC,OR]

8. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Bolt\ 0 [NC,OR]

9. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^BOT\ for\ JCE [NC,OR]

10. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Bot\ mailto:craftbot\@yahoo\.com [NC,OR]

11. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^casper [NC,OR]

12. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^checkprivacy [NC,OR]

13. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ChinaClaw [NC,OR]

14. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^clshttp [NC,OR]

15. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^cmsworldmap [NC,OR]

16. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^comodo [NC,OR]

17. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Custo [NC,OR]

18. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Default\ Browser\ 0 [NC,OR]

19. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^diavol [NC,OR]

20. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^DIIbot [NC,OR]

21. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^DISCo [NC,OR]

22. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^dotbot [NC,OR]

23. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Download\ Demon [NC,OR]

24. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^eCatch [NC,OR]

25. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EirGrabber [NC,OR]

26. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailCollector [NC,OR]

27. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailSiphon [NC,OR]

28. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailWolf [NC,OR]

29. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Express\ WebPictures [NC,OR]

30. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^extract [NC,OR]

31. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ExtractorPro [NC,OR]

32. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EyeNetIE [NC,OR]

33. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^feedfinder [NC,OR]

34. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^FHscan [NC,OR]

35. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^FlashGet [NC,OR]

36. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^flicky [NC,OR]

37. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^FunWebProducts [NC,OR]

38. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^g00g1e [NC,OR]

39. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^GetRight [NC,OR]

40. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^GetWeb! [NC,OR]

41. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Go-Ahead-Got-It [NC,OR]

42. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Go!Zilla [NC,OR]

43. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^grab [NC,OR]

44. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^GrabNet [NC,OR]

45. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Grafula [NC,OR]

46. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^harvest [NC,OR]

47. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^HMView [NC,OR]

48. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ia_archiver [NC,OR]

49. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Image\ Stripper [NC,OR]

50. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Image\ Sucker [NC,OR]

51. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^InterGET [NC,OR]

52. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Internet\ Ninja [NC,OR]

53. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^InternetSeer\.com [NC,OR]

54. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^jakarta [NC,OR]

55. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Java [NC,OR]

56. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^JetCar [NC,OR]

57. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^JOC\ Web\ Spider [NC,OR]

58. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^kanagawa [NC,OR]

59. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^kmccrew [NC,OR]

60. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^larbin [NC,OR]

61. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^LeechFTP [NC,OR]

62. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^libwww [NC,OR]

63. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mass\ Downloader [NC,OR]

64. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Maxthon$ [NC,OR]

65. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^microsoft\.url [NC,OR]

66. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^MIDown\ tool [NC,OR]

67. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^miner [NC,OR]

68. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mister\ PiX [NC,OR]

69. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mozilla\.*Indy [NC,OR]

70. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mozilla\.*NEWT [NC,OR]

71. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^MSFrontPage [NC,OR]

72. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Navroad [NC,OR]

73. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NearSite [NC,OR]

74. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Net\ Vampire [NC,OR]

75. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NetAnts [NC,OR]

76. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NetSpider [NC,OR]

77. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NetZIP [NC,OR]

78. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^nutch [NC,OR]

79. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Octopus [NC,OR]

80. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Offline\ Explorer [NC,OR]

81. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Offline\ Navigator [NC,OR]

82. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^PageGrabber [NC,OR]

83. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Papa\ Foto [NC,OR]

84. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^pavuk [NC,OR]

85. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^pcBrowser [NC,OR]

86. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^PeoplePal [NC,OR]

87. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^planetwork [NC,OR]

88. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^psbot [NC,OR]

89. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^purebot [NC,OR]

90. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^pycurl [NC,OR]

91. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^RealDownload [NC,OR]

92. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ReGet [NC,OR]

93. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Rippers\ 0 [NC,OR]

94. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SeaMonkey$ [NC,OR]

95. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^sitecheck\.internetseer\.com [NC,OR]

96. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SiteSnagger [NC,OR]

97. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^skygrid [NC,OR]

98. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SmartDownload [NC,OR]

99. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^sucker [NC,OR]

100. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SuperBot [NC,OR]

101. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SuperHTTP [NC,OR]

102. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Surfbot [NC,OR]

103. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^tAkeOut [NC,OR]

104. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Teleport\ Pro [NC,OR]

105. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Toata\ dragostea\ mea\ pentru\ diavola [NC,OR]

106. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^turnit [NC,OR]

107. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^vikspider [NC,OR]

108. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^VoidEYE [NC,OR]

109. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Web\ Image\ Collector [NC,OR]

110. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Web\ Sucker [NC,OR]

111. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebAuto [NC,OR]

112. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebCopier [NC,OR]

113. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebFetch [NC,OR]

114. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebGo\ IS [NC,OR]

115. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebLeacher [NC,OR]

116. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebReaper [NC,OR]

117. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebSauger [NC,OR]

118. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Website\ eXtractor [NC,OR]

119. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Website\ Quester [NC,OR]

120. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebStripper [NC,OR]

121. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebWhacker [NC,OR]

122. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebZIP [NC,OR]

123. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Wget [NC,OR]

124. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Widow [NC,OR]

125. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WPScan [NC,OR]

126. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WWW-Mechanize [NC,OR]

127. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WWWOFFLE [NC,OR]

128. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Xaldon\ WebSpider [NC,OR]

129. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Yandex [NC,OR]

130. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Zeus [NC,OR]

131. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^zmeu [NC,OR]

132. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} 360Spider [NC,OR]

133. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} AhrefsBot [NC,OR]

134. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} CazoodleBot [NC,OR]

135. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} discobot [NC,OR]

136. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} EasouSpider [NC,OR]

137. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ecxi [NC,OR]

138. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} GT::WWW [NC,OR]

139. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} heritrix [NC,OR]

140. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} HTTP::Lite [NC,OR]

141. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} HTTrack [NC,OR]

142. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ia_archiver [NC,OR]

143. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} id-search [NC,OR]

144. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} id-search\.org [NC,OR]

145. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} IDBot [NC,OR]

146. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Indy\ Library [NC,OR]

147. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} IRLbot [NC,OR]

148. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ISC\ Systems\ iRc\ Search\ 2\.1 [NC,OR]

149. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} LinksCrawler [NC,OR]

150. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} LinksManager.com_bot [NC,OR]

151. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} linkwalker [NC,OR]

152. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} lwp-trivial [NC,OR]

153. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} MFC_Tear_Sample [NC,OR]

154. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Microsoft\ URL\ Control [NC,OR]

155. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Missigua\ Locator [NC,OR]

156. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} MJ12bot [NC,OR]

157. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} panscient.com [NC,OR]

158. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} PECL::HTTP [NC,OR]

159. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} PHPCrawl [NC,OR]

160. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} PleaseCrawl [NC,OR]

161. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SBIder [NC,OR]

162. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SearchmetricsBot [NC,OR]

163. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Snoopy [NC,OR]

164. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Sogou [NC,OR]

165. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Steeler [NC,OR]

166. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} URI::Fetch [NC,OR]

167. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} urllib [NC,OR]

168. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Web\ Sucker [NC,OR]

169. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} webalta [NC,OR]

170. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} WebCollage [NC,OR]

171. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Wells\ Search\ II [NC,OR]

172. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} WEP\ Search [NC,OR]

173. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} XoviBot [NC,OR]

174. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YisouSpider [NC,OR]

175. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} zermelo [NC,OR]

176. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ZyBorg

177. RewriteRule ^.* - [F,L]

178. # Abuse bot blocking rule end

* # Abuse HTTP Referrer Blocking

179. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} free-social-buttions\.com [NC,OR]

180. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} best-seo-offer\.com [NC,OR]

181. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} buttons-for-your-website\.com [NC,OR]

182. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} www1.free-social-buttons\.com [NC,OR]

183. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} www2.free-social-buttons\.com [NC,OR]

184. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} www3.free-social-buttons\.com [NC,OR]

185. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} 100dollars-seo.com\.com [NC,OR]

186. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} www4.free-social-buttons\.com

187. RewriteRule ^.* - [F,L]

188. # Abuse HTTP Referrer Blocking end

* # Start Custom Blocks

189. # Aboundex

190. Deny from 173.192.34.95

191. # Bluecoat

192. deny from 8.21.4.254

193. deny from 65.46.48.192/30

194. deny from 65.160.238.176/28

195. deny from 85.92.222.0/24

196. deny from 206.51.36.0/22

197. deny from 216.52.23.0/24

198. # cyveillance

199. deny from 38.100.19.8/29

200. deny from 38.100.21.0/24

201. deny from 38.100.41.64/26

202. deny from 38.105.71.0/25

203. deny from 38.105.83.0/27

204. deny from 38.112.21.140/30

205. deny from 38.118.42.32/29

206. deny from 65.213.208.128/27

207. deny from 65.222.176.96/27

208. deny from 65.222.185.72/29

209. # Cyberpatrol

210. deny from 38.103.17.160/27

211. # Internet Identity - Anti-Phishing

212. deny from 66.113.96.0/20

213. deny from 70.35.113.192/27

214. # Ironport

215. deny from 204.15.80.0/22

216. # Lightspeed Systems Security

217. deny from 66.17.15.128/26

218. deny from 69.84.207.32/27

219. deny from 69.84.207.128/25

220. # Layered Technologies

221. deny from 72.36.128.0/17

222. deny from 72.232.0.0/16

223. deny from 72.233.0.0/17

224. deny from 216.32.0.0/14

225. # M86

226. deny from 67.192.231.224/29

227. deny from 208.90.236.0/22

228. # Phish-Inspector.com

229. deny from 209.147.127.208/28

230. # Prescient Software, Inc. Phishmongers

231. deny from 198.186.190.0/23

232. deny from 198.186.192.0/23

233. deny from 198.186.194.0/24

234. # urlfilterdb

235. deny from 207.210.99.32/29

236. # websense-in.car1.sandiego1.level3.net

237. deny from 4.53.120.22

238. # Websense

239. deny from 66.194.6.0/24

240. deny from 67.117.201.128/28

241. deny from 69.67.32.0/20

242. deny from 131.191.87.0/24

243. deny from 204.15.64.0/21

244. deny from 208.80.192.0/21

245. deny from 212.62.26.64/27

246. deny from 213.168.226.0/24

247. deny from 213.168.241.0/30

248. deny from 213.168.242.0/30

249. deny from 213.236.150.16/28

250. # End Custom Blocks. Add a couple line breaks below this as well.

* # Block comment spammers and bad bots

251. # Add your custom IP block list here. Example format:

252. # deny from 4.53.120.22

253. # End Block comment spammers, bad bots and some proxies
2 Likes
11

Hi EJL,

Thank you for pointing this out. Do I need to create the .htaccess file myself? Or how can I search for the .htaccess in my server?

Sorry this question might sound quite stupid, and I am quite new to using Linux terminal, so if you are willing to help, your help is really appreciated.

Thank you.

Emily

12

It should be in your root directory of your web server. If it’s not present then you can create a file named .htaccess and copy the contents of the post into it.

If you are new to Linux I recommend using MobaXterm. It gives you a windows style Cli interface. Superior to putty and the other alternatives in every way.

13

@EJL do you find that you have to update this list frequently? Or rather, how frequently do you update this list? Thanks.

14

I use Stop bad bots on my Wordpress installs so I dont really update this much