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Extension:TitleBlacklist

Issue tracker: #MediaWiki-extensions-TitleBlacklist
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This extension comes with MediaWiki 1.21 and above. Thus you do not have to download it again. However, you still need to follow the other instructions provided.
MediaWiki extensions manual
TitleBlacklist
Release status: stable
Implementation User rights , API
Description Blocks the creation of pages matching a regular expression blacklist
Author(s) Victor Vasiliev (VasilievVVtalk)
Latest version 1.5.0 (Continuous updates)
Compatibility policy Snapshots releases along with MediaWiki. Master is not backward compatible.
MediaWiki 1.35+
PHP 7.0+
License GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download
Download extension
Git [?]:
Parameters
  • $wgTitleBlacklistSources
  • $wgTitleBlacklistUsernameSources
  • $wgTitleBlacklistCaching
  • $wgTitleBlacklistBlockAutoAccountCreation
  • $wgTitleBlacklistLogHits
Added rights

  • tboverride
  • tboverride-account
  • titleblacklistlog
Hooks used
Quarterly downloads 54 (Ranked 82nd)
Translate the TitleBlacklist extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Issues Open tasks · Report a bug
A proposal to rename this extension is discussed at task T254650.

The TitleBlacklist extension allows wiki administrators to block the creation, movement and upload of pages, the title of which matches one or more regular expressions, as well as blocking creation of accounts with matching usernames.

Installation

  • Download and move the extracted TitleBlacklist folder to your extensions/ directory.
    Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:cd extensions/
    git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/TitleBlacklist
  • Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file: 
    wfLoadExtension( 'TitleBlacklist' );
  • Configure blacklist sources (see below)
  • Yes Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.
By default it only affects non-sysop users. To make it default for all use $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['tboverride'] = false;.

Configuration

$wgTitleBlacklistSources
Array of title blacklist sources.
Should be in array( name => source description ) format. Defaults to an empty array.
$wgTitleBlacklistUsernameSources
Sets the sources which may work as a username filter.
"*" is for all; false disables all.
If you want to limit it to particular sources, use array( source name 1, source name 2 ). This may be useful when you have shared account creation system in order to avoid blacklist fragmentation.
$wgTitleBlacklistLogHits
When true, logs on Special:Log/titleblacklist all attempts of local account creation that match the blacklists. Defaults to false. Note that even disabled, the log will still be visible for users groups with the titleblacklistlog right.
$wgTitleBlacklistCaching
?
$wgTitleBlacklistBlockAutoAccountCreation
Also blocks account created automatically that match the blacklists. Defaults to true.

Multiple blacklist sources

The title blacklist can be gathered from multiple sources outside the local message. For configuring blacklist sources use code as described below: 

wfLoadExtension( 'TitleBlacklist' );
$wgTitleBlacklistSources = [
    [
         'type' => 'localpage',
         'src'  => 'MediaWiki:Titleblacklist'
    ],
    [
         'type' => 'url',
         'src'  => 'https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Title_blacklist&action=raw'
    ],
    [
         'type' => 'file',
         'src'  => '/home/wikipedia/blacklists/titles',
    ]
];

See task T113864 for further information.

Usage

Blacklist

The title blacklist is found on the MediaWiki:Titleblacklist page.

This page consists of regular expressions, each on a separate line. Each of them forbids the creation of pages whose titles match it.

Each entry may also contain one or more attributes. The list of attributes must be enclosed in <> and separated with |. The possible attributes are:

  • autoconfirmed - allow autoconfirmed users to bypass the restriction
  • casesensitive - only apply the restriction when the letter case exactly matches the entry
  • noedit - also forbid edits to matching pages that already exist
  • moveonly - only forbid page moves to matching titles, allowing ordinary page creations
  • newaccountonly - only forbid matching account creations, allowing other actions
  • reupload - allow uploading new versions of matching files that already exist
  • errmsg=X - when an action is prevented, display the error message with the name X instead of the standard message

If the AntiSpoof extension is installed, the antispoof attribute can be used to normalize titles before checking them against the rules.

For example: 

Foo <autoconfirmed|noedit|errmsg=blacklisted-testpage> # This page name is not allowed
[Bb]ar # No one should create article about it
.*pandora.* # This word is not allowed in any part of a page name

What is referred to here as regular expressions are not proper regular expressions, but rather subpatterns that are inserted into a hard-coded regular expression. i.e. the subpattern Foo from above would create a regular expression like /^Foo$/usi.

Underscores ("_") in regular expressions will be converted to spaces by the extension, because titles are matched against its text form ("Page title" instead of "Page_title").

Whitelist

There is also a whitelist at MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist. The blacklist is applied first, then the whitelist. So user input that matches an entry on the blacklist is blocked, except if it matches an entry on the whitelist. You don't have to configure anything in LocalSettings.php in order to use the whitelist. Some of the optional attributes listed above, for the blacklist, also work for the whitelist, e.g. casesensitive.

Customizing

Warning messages

When an attempt to create a page is blocked due to a blacklisted title, a warning message is shown to the user. This can be customized via following system messages defined in the namespace Mediawiki:

Custom messages can be defined by using the errmsg attribute.

Example: Using TitleBlacklist to control user account creation

Conceptual overview

The username for new accounts will be regarded by this extension differently to the way it regards new articles. This extension will prepend "User:" (or its localized equivalent) to the string that a user enters at Username on the create account page. So when this extension is performing matches with your Regex's, as found on MediaWiki:Titleblacklist or MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist, it will match against "User:" + <userinput>.

For example, imagine you want to block "jill" as a new user. Imagine you had a blacklist regex "jill.* <newaccountonly>" and a user enters "jill" as the username on the create account page. This will pass as the comparison this extension will make will be between "jill.*" (the regex) and "User:jill" (the constructed input string). These don't match and so "jill" is allowed (and you probably didn't intend this). To effect the intended block use a regex like ".*jill.* <newaccountonly>" or "User:jill.* <newaccountonly>" on MediaWiki:Titleblacklist.

If you want to block all users except for all those that do match a regex then block all users in MediaWiki:Titleblacklist and write the permissible regex in the MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist.

How to

If you would like to force all usernames, during account creation, to consist of exactly two names, space separated, with each name capitalized then do the following:

1. Install TitleBlacklist.

2. Add the following to your LocalSettings.php 

wfLoadExtension( 'TitleBlacklist' );
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['tboverride'] = false; 
$wgTitleBlacklistSources = [
  [
    'type' => 'localpage',
    'src'  => 'MediaWiki:Titleblacklist'
  ]
];

3. In https://www.example.com/mywiki/MediaWiki:Titleblacklist add 

# Block all user accounts, and only permit those that match the MediaWiki:Titlewhitelistregex 
.* <newaccountonly>

4. In https://www.example.com/mywiki/MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist add 

# Only allow two names, separated by a space, with each name capitalized, e.g. "Fred Mew" OK, "Fred mew" fails, "Fredmew" fails.
# Depends on .* <newaccountonly> in blacklist
User:[A-Z][a-z]+\s[A-Z][a-z]+ <casesensitive>

5. In https://www.example.com/mywiki/MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account edit 

The user name "$2" has been blocked from creation. It matches the following blacklist entry: <code>$1</code>.

Please use a real name for the user name. User names need to be comprised of two names separated by a space. Each name must be capitalized.

E.g.:
* "Mary Smith". OK.
* "MarySmith". Invalid.
* "Mary smith". Invalid.
* "marysmith". Invalid.

User name creation (and article creation) blocking rules are controlled by MediaWiki:Titleblacklist and MediaWiki:Titlewhitelist. This message can be customized at MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account.

Testing for matches

The API module action=titleblacklist can be used to test a title and action (e.g. edit, create, new-account) against the blacklist. Users with the 'tboverride' right should be sure to supply the tbnooverride parameter.

For example, if the blacklist contained the filter: 

.*(.)\1{10}.* <newaccountonly|errmsg=titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account-invalid> # Disallows eleven or more of the same character repeated in usernames

you could use an API request like

api.php?action=titleblacklist&tbtitle=AAAAAAAAAAA&tbaction=new-account&tbnooverride=1 [try in ApiSandbox]
Result
{
    "titleblacklist": {
        "result": "blacklisted",
        "reason": "<table  class=\"plainlinks fmbox\nfmbox-system \" style=\"\" role=\"presentation\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<tr>\n<td class=\"mbox-image\">\n  [[File:Imbox notice.png|40x40px|link=|alt=]]</td>\n<td class=\"mbox-text\" style=\"\"> The user name \"AAAAAAAAAAA\" [[Mediawiki talk:Titleblacklist|has been blocklisted]] from creation. </td>\n\n</tr>\n</table>",
        "message": "titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account-invalid",
        "line": ".*(.)\1{10}.* &lt;newaccountonly|errmsg=titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account-invalid&gt; # Disallows eleven or more of the same character repeated in usernames"
    }
}

If Scribunto is installed, TitleBlacklist allows for testing if particular titles and actions will match an entry in the blacklist using the mw.ext.TitleBlacklist.test function. If a match is found, the details for the matched entry are returned.

For example, if the blacklist contained the filter: 

.*(.)\1{10}.* <newaccountonly|errmsg=titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account-invalid> # Disallows eleven or more of the same character repeated in usernames

running the function: 

mw.ext.TitleBlacklist.test("new-account", "AAAAAAAAAAA")

would return the following table containing details about the matched entry: 

{
	custommessage = "titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account-invalid",
	message = "titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account-invalid",
	params = {
		errmsg = "titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account-invalid",
		newaccountonly = true
	},
	raw = " .*(.)\1{10}.* <newaccountonly|errmsg=titleblacklist-forbidden-new-account-invalid> # Disallows eleven or more of the same character repeated in usernames",
	regex = ".*(.)\1{10}.*",
	version = 3
}

Clearing the cache

The contents of the blacklists are cached. Changes in blacklists configured at a URL or a file on the server are not applied immediately. To force clearing the cache, edit and save the page MediaWiki:Titleblacklist (even if you don't change anything). It doesn't matter if it's configured as a blacklist or not. See includes/Hooks.php.

Resources on regular expressions

See also

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