matomo-org / matomo-org/plugin-TrackingSpamPrevention

Don't block VPN users

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#9 5 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Bug
Dominant language
PHP
Stars
18
Forks
10
Avg merge
20h 11m
Merged PRs (30d)
1

Description

Someone might use a VPN through Amazon or other cloud providers and we falsely don't track them. How can we detect these VPN providers without a third party and without slowing down?

I don't think checking for headers might work reliably like in https://www.ipqualityscore.com/articles/view/1/how-to-detect-proxies-with-php

There seem to be DBs but they might be commercial like https://www.ip2location.com/database/px10-ip-proxytype-country-region-city-isp-domain-usagetype-asn-lastseen-threat-residential

I suppose it will not be possible to reliably detect them (and fixed IP addresses will change over time etc). Maybe we could check if some VPN providers disclose IP ranges (since sometimes you need to whitelist them eg in AWS, or WP etc but then you might just get a dedicated IP)

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by reviewing the plugin's existing tracking and IP-handling behavior, then assess provider IP ranges, headers, and third-party databases against the requirements of reliable detection without added latency. Done should mean a documented, maintainable approach with clear reliability and performance limits.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php
Domain
security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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