 Release status: stable | |
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| Implementation | Special page,User identity,API,Hook,Database |
| Description | CheckUser function allows a user with permissions to check which IPs are used by a given username and which usernames are used by a given IP, without having to run queries directly against the database by hand. |
| Author(s) | Tim Starling,Aaron Schulz,Dreamy Jazz |
| Latest version | 2.5 (continuous updates) |
| Compatibility policy | Snapshots releases along with MediaWiki. Master is not backward compatible. |
| PHP | 7.4.3+ |
| Database changes | Yes |
| Virtual domain | virtual-checkuser-global |
| Tables | cu_changes cu_log_event cu_private_event cu_log cu_useragent_clienthints cu_useragent_clienthints_map cu_useragent cuci_wiki_map cuci_temp_edit cuci_user cusi_case cusi_signal cusi_user |
| License | GNU General Public License 2.0 or later |
| Download | |
| Help | Help:Extension:CheckUser |
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| Translate the CheckUser extension if it is available at translatewiki.net | |
| Issues | Open tasks ·Report a bug |
CheckUser is an extension that allows a user (with thecheckuser permission) to check whichIP addresses are used by a given username and which usernames are used by a given IP, without having to run queries directly against the database by hand.The extension is running live on all Wikimedia wikis.
Updates will be made according to the needs of Wikimedia Foundation wikis; or where critical vulnerabilities are discovered. Details on how to use the tools provided by the extension are atHelp:Extension:CheckUser.
CheckUser folder to yourextensions/ directory.cdextensions/gitclonehttps://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/CheckUsercomposer install --no-dev in the extension directory.(SeeT173141 for potential complications.)wfLoadExtension('CheckUser');
Done – Navigate toSpecial:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.Follow the steps inMediaWiki-Docker/Extension/CheckUser to install this extension inside a MediaWiki Docker instance.
This tool copies recent changes data to separate tables, and adds to that when new entries are added.If$wgPutIPinRC is set tofalse, the copied data will not contain the associated IP address.However, entries added after installation of this extension will contain the IP address.
After installation of this extension, you can reduce$wgRCMaxAge to make recentchanges shorter without affecting checkuser.Use$wgCUDMaxAge to set how far back checkuser data can go, in seconds.
The CheckUser-specific setting$wgCheckUserCIDRLimit determines the largest range that can be checked in a single check.Its format is the same as$wgBlockCIDRLimit.The default limit is/19 for IPv6 checks and/16 for IPv4 checks.
To allow this tool to log successful and failed login attempts as well as logouts, set$wgCheckUserLogLogins totrue.If you have bot accounts on your wiki, setting$wgCheckUserLogSuccessfulBotLogins tofalse will skip logging successful login attempts to bot accounts.
| MediaWiki version: | ≥ 1.43 |
If the extension is installed on a multi-wiki install, then you should set$wgVirtualDomainsMapping for thevirtual-checkuser-global to point to a central database table.Setting this will ensure that the central index tables are actually on a central DB, and therefore theGlobalBlocking global autoblocks and GUC work.After doing this, you will need to runupdate.php to create the tables on the central wiki.
| MediaWiki version: | ≥ 1.45 |
After 1.45, the CheckUser API is disabled by default.If you want to enable this you should set$wgCheckUserDisableCheckUserAPI tofalse.
If Special:GlobalContributions is not returning revisions as expected (e.g. you have revisions on another wiki that you can view on that wiki), a misconfiguration may be causing an internal failure that isn't user-facing (as it cannot be user resolved).Check that:
sites table and wikis can be added to this table via theaddSite maintenance script. You'll need to ensure that the optional parameterspagepath andfilepath are filled out (e.g.php ./maintenance/run.php addSite globalId groupName --pagepathhttps://hostname/wiki/\$1 --filepathhttps://hostname/w/\$1), as Special:GlobalContributions uses these to generate API queries and links.virtual-checkuser-global (eg.$wgVirtualDomainsMapping['virtual-checkuser-global'] = [ 'db' => $wiki ];) and that thecuci_temp_edit table is recording revisions from the affected wiki.centralauth token must work across both wikis.To grant the right to useSpecial:CheckUser,Special:Investigate andSpecial:CheckUserLog, a user with user rights management must go toSpecial:UserRights and enter the user's name in the box, then select the option "checkuser".Once this is done, the aforementioned special pages will show up inSpecial:SpecialPages page for that user.
To allow users to access the IP addresses oftemporary accounts, they should be granted thecheckuser-temporary-account right.
To give sysops all the rights this extension provides, put the following intoLocalSettings.php:
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['checkuser']=true;$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['checkuser-log']=true;$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['investigate']=true;$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['checkuser-temporary-account-log']=true;$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['checkuser-temporary-account-no-preference']=true;
To only allow the adding and removing of thecheckuser permission, use the following instead:
$wgAddGroups['sysop'][]='checkuser';$wgRemoveGroups['sysop'][]='checkuser';
| MediaWiki version: | ≥ 1.45 |
Since MediaWiki 1.45, GuidedTour is removed from Special:Investigate, so the preferencescheckuser-investigate-tour-seen andcheckuser-investigate-form-tour-seen are no longer used.If Special:Investigate was used before upgrading to 1.45, these preferences may be stored unnecessarily for some users.To remove these preferences from theuser_properties table, run the maintenance scripts:
$phpmaintenance/run.phpuserOptions.phpcheckuser-investigate-tour-seen--delete$phpmaintenance/run.phpuserOptions.phpcheckuser-investigate-form-tour-seen--delete
A selected number of the configuration values are shown below.These configuration values are useful for administrators of wikis to modify.Configuration values which are usually left as their default value are not specified here to keep the list concise, but details for these configuration values are present in theextension.json file.
| Configuration name | Default value | Detail |
|---|---|---|
$wgCUDMaxAge | 7776000 (90 days) | How long to keep CU data (in seconds) |
$wgCheckUserMaxBlocks | 200 | Maximum number of users that can be mass blocked simultaneously onSpecial:Investigate |
$wgCheckUserForceSummary | false | Set this totrue if you want to force checkusers into giving a reason for each check they do through Special:CheckUser. (Not very useful, given that checkusers could simply give a summary such as "they need to be checked" or "I feel like it" and the software would not know.) |
$wgCheckUserCIDRLimit | ['IPv4'=>16,'IPv6'=>19] | Smallest CIDR value that can be used in any individual range check |
$wgCUPublicKey | '' | Public key to encrypt private data that may need to be read later. Generate a public key with something like:
Used with an associated private key to encrypt certain data that is not shown to CUs but stored in the cu_changes or cu_private_event table. Currently this is only the recipients of emails. Without a valid public key the data will not be stored. |
$wgCheckUserCAMultiLock | false | This can be used to add a link to Special:MultiLock by CentralAuth to the Special:CheckUser's mass block form. This requires theCentralAuth extension to be installed on the wiki. To enable this, set this to an array with a central wiki's database name and an array with the name(s) of the global group(s) to add the link for. For example:$wgCheckUserCAMultiLock=['centralDB'=>'metawiki','groups'=>['steward']]; |
$wgCheckUserCAtoollink | false | Since77360f1cf1d2. This adds a link to central wiki Special:CentralAuth to the Special:CheckUser's "Get users" results. This requires theCentralAuth extension to be installed on the wiki. To enable this, set this with a central wiki's database name. For example:$wgCheckUserCAtoollink='metawiki'; |
$wgCheckUserGBtoollink | false | Since77360f1cf1d2. This adds a link to local or central wiki Special:GlobalBlock to the Special:CheckUser's "Get users" results. This requires theGlobalBlocking extension to be installed on the wiki. To enable this, if a$wgConf is configured, set this to an array with a central wiki's database name and an array with the name(s) of the local (or global if you haveCentralAuth installed) group(s) to add the link for. For example:$wgCheckUserGBtoollink=['centralDB'=>'metawiki','groups'=>['steward','staff']]; |
$wgCheckUserEnableSpecialInvestigate (1.35-1.43) | false (<=1.39)true (1.40+) | Since57dcfe46d2e4. This enables Special:Investigate, an updated version of Special:CheckUser that allows checking for multiple user accounts and IP addresses within one investigation. |
$wgCheckUserLogLogins | false | Whether CheckUser should log login and logout attempts (both successful and not). |
$wgCheckUserLogSuccessfulBotLogins | true | Whether CheckUser should store successful login attempts to accounts with the bot user group if $wgCheckUserLogLogins is set totrue. Only is used if $wgCheckUserLogLogins istrue |
$wgCheckUserMaximumRowCount | 5000 | The maximum number of results that can be returned by Special:CheckUser. Before MediaWiki 1.39, in the 'Get edits' and 'Get IPs' results having over 5,000 results would return the results in a different format. From MediaWiki 1.39 this is the maximum number of results to show by page and more can be generated using the paging links |
$wgCheckUserInvestigateMaximumRowCount | 25000 | Similar to $wgCheckUserMaximumRowCount, but for Investigate |
$wgCheckUserCollapseCheckUserHelperByDefault (1.41+) | 2500 | Controls when the "CheckUser helper" summary table onSpecial:CheckUser. Specifytrue to always collapse by default,false to never collapse by default, and a number to collapse when more than that number of results are displayed on the page. |
$wgCheckUserMaximumIPsToAutoblock (1.43+) | 1 | The maximum number of IP addresses to retroactively autoblock when a block is created with autoblocking enabled. |
$wgCheckUserClientHintsEnabled (1.41+) | true | Used to control whether client hints should be collected and displayed in results by CheckUser. |
$wgCheckUserClientHintsSpecialPages (1.41+) | {"CreateAccount":"header","Emailuser":"js","PasswordReset":"js","Userlogin":["js","header"],"Userlogout":"header"} | The list of special pages where CheckUser will request client hints if$wgCheckUserClientHintsEnabled istrue. |
$wgCheckUserClientHintsHeaders (1.41+) | {"Sec-CH-UA":"brands","Sec-CH-UA-Arch":"architecture","Sec-CH-UA-Bitness":"bitness","Sec-CH-UA-Form-Factor":"","Sec-CH-UA-Full-Version-List":"fullVersionList","Sec-CH-UA-Mobile":"mobile","Sec-CH-UA-Model":"model","Sec-CH-UA-Platform":"platform","Sec-CH-UA-Platform-Version":"platformVersion","Sec-CH-UA-WoW64":""} | The list of client hint types that will be requested. Keys represent the client hint values requested using theAccept-CH header. Values represent the equivalent name when requesting them from the JS client side client hints API. |
$wgCheckUserClientHintsForDisplay (1.41+) | ["model","fullVersionList","platformVersion","platform","brands","formFactor","architecture","mobile","bitness","woW64"] | The list of Client Hints data to display in CheckUser results. The order of the array is used to determine what order to display the data. |
$wgCheckUserClientHintsValuesToHide (1.41+) | {"architecture":["x86"],"bitness":["64"],"woW64":[false]} | Specifies Client Hint data values which should be hidden in the CheckUser results. This is done to hide commonly seen Client Hint data values in the cases where it's not useful to see this information unless it's a rare value. |
$wgCheckUserTemporaryAccountMaxAge (1.40+) | 86400 | The number of seconds for which the temporary account API response is fresh. |
$wgCheckUserSpecialPagesWithoutIPRevealButtons (1.40+) | ["Investigate","InvestigateBlock","CheckUser","CheckUserLog","Activeusers","Listusers","BlockList"] | A list of special page names where "Show IP" buttons are disabled, because they are not useful. The special page names are case sensitive and do not always match their appearance in the URL. For exampleSpecial:ListUsers is calledListusers in this array. |
$wgCheckUserClientHintsUnsetHeaderWhenPossible (1.41+) | true | Iftrue, the server will send an emptyAccept-CH header when the user is viewing a page which does not need client hints data. |
$wgCheckUserGlobalContributionsCentralWikiId (1.44+) | null | A string representing the name of the wiki to designate as the "central" wiki for Special:GlobalContributions. Setting this will redirect all other wiki's Special:GlobalContributions page to the central wiki's instead. |
$wgCheckUserWriteToCentralIndex (1.43+) | true | Used to prevent adding entries to the CheckUser central index tables on the wiki. Use this when the wiki is not part of a larger wiki farm unified account system. |
$wgCheckUserCentralIndexGroupsToExclude (1.43+) | ["bot"] | Users in any of the groups specified in this configuration value will not have their actions stored in the central index tables. Used to reduce the rate of writes to the central index tables for high activity users where there is no need to run CheckUser checks on these users. Users in these group are still checkable and have their IP and user agent logged. |
See sectionbelow.
Detail about how to use the extension can be viewed atHelp:Extension:CheckUser.This information is not included here to keep this page manageable in size, and to focus this page on installation and administration of the extension.
There are several special pages and a few APIs provided by the extension. The special pages are:
The extension also provides the ability to reveal the IP address used by a temporary account. Described atHelp:Extension:CheckUser.
 | This extension is being used on one or moreWikimedia projects. This probably means that the extension is stable and works well enough to be used by such high-traffic websites. Look for this extension's name in Wikimedia'sCommonSettings.php andInitialiseSettings.php configuration files to see where it's installed. A full list of the extensions installed on a particular wiki can be seen on the wiki'sSpecial:Version page. |
 | This extension is included in the following wiki farms/hosts and/or packages:This is not an authoritative list. Some wiki farms/hosts and/or packages may contain this extension even if they are not listed here. Always check with your wiki farms/hosts or bundle to confirm. |