Moderated RSS

Maintained by Sebsoft BV, Rogier van Dongen
The Sebsoft Moderated RSS Plugin offers you the possibility to load multiple feeds into a block, allowing for authorizing each and every item.
Free
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Supports Moodle 3.3-4.4 See all versions
Latest release: 2 years ago
Installations: 303
Downloads (last 90 days): 19
Frankenstyle name: block_selectrss
Blocks

Product ratings and reviews are coming to Moodle Marketplace. Until then, existing comments remain available to read, but new posts have been disabled.

Claudia Herrera
Hello Sebastian Berm.
I read the comments about the contamination of this plugin, I don't have much knowledge on the subject, but my Moodle installation was infected. I downloaded the contaminated folders before deleting them, if you want I can send them to you, my email is astrologiaclh@gmail.com. Greetings.
Logo Sebsoft
We have released a new version of this plugin, that essentially disables all functions. Due to how Moodle works, any site that has the compromised version will get this offered as update, meaning this should be overwritten at that time.
@Esteban: There is no real reason as to why this is used, however... There might be a difference between the version of block_rss_client Moodle core has and this version. This version actively stores the content of the RSS and displays it afterwards. So this could have been used to make the compromised version. However, it is not sure that this might be enough to actually 'plug the hole'.
I will contact HQ to inform them of this discussion so proactive measures can be taken to inform people that have registered their site of this issue.
Logo Sebsoft
This plugin itself does not contain malware (as far as we know), it uses the RSS feed capabilities of Moodle, like the core block_rss_client also does.
However:
* This plugin can be used to include feeds that do contain malware, and as such, display malware to users of sites.
* I wouldn't be surprised if this is actually able to introduce XSS issues.
* I have asked this plugin be removed entirely, but at the moment, not having maintenance is not a reason for removal sad.
* The source repo's have been taken offline by Bitbucket years ago.
* This plugin was inspired on the 2015 version of block_rss_client.
@Esteban / Rogério: Can you please send me a message via the message system if you have actual a working sample of this malware?
Esteban Sanchez
This plugins has a malware and leads to an infection of the whole LMS. Interestingly, the plugin has had a huge increase in installations since March of this year as can be seen on its statistics page, despite not having active maintenance by the developers.
Logo Sebsoft
To be honest, this plugin as not been updated and reviewed as of Moodle 3.3. We aren't aware of anything wrong with it, but also have no way to maintain it anymore (you might see the source control / bug tracker links to be broken).
In case you want official support for this plugin and updates to the new Moodle version, it's certainly possible; you can DM me or Sebsoft Plugins for further details.
Rogério Knop
This plugin is being identified as suspicious and vulnerable, some of our machines were invaded and it was present on all of them, on machines that did not have the plugin, nothing happened.
Rogier van Dongen
New version!
Updated plugin for Moodle 3.3 onwards: replaced pix_url() by image_url()
Cheers
Sebsoft BV
New version (1.0.3)!
Issue #5 was solved, the email sent out will now have a more satisfactory e-mail subject.
Also fixed: sorting, which didn't have a correct order.
Sebsoft BV
Updated to version 1.0.2 - this version allows the block to show the (partial) feed item content. Displaying the items now looks more similar to the "rss_client" plugin that is shipped with a default Moodle install.
Sebsoft BV
Thank you David, we've updated the name in de description smile.
David Mudrák

Thanks guys for fixing the raised issues promptly. The last thing to do is to reflect the new block name here in the description fields of the plugin (I already changed the name). You are cleared to land now, welcome to the Plugins directory!

David Mudrák

Thanks for sharing this block with the community. I found it quite interesting feature that may be useful in certain cases. You may want to think about eventually changing the name of the block to something like "Moderated RSS" to make the feature obvious (no need to change the frankenstyle name, just the strings). Also, the default block name "RSS Items" could match it, to make it easier to find the block in the "Add a new block" menu.

While reviewing the code, I spotted some issues. At least #1, #3 and #4 should be fixed prior publishing the block here. The #2 would be nice to have, too, but it is much more common usability issue with many Moodle plugins (and even some core components).

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