mod_muc_limits

Introduction

This module allows you to control the maximum rate of ‘events’ in a MUC room. This makes it useful to prevent room floods (whether malicious or accidental).

Details

This module limits the following events:

The limit is for the room as a whole, not individual occupants in the room. Users with an affiliation (members, admins and owners) are not limited.

Configuration

Add the module to the MUC host (not the global modules_enabled):

Component "conference.example.com" "muc"
    modules_enabled = { "muc_limits" }

You can define (globally or per-MUC component) the following options:

Name Default value Description
muc_event_rate 0.5 The maximum number of events per second.
muc_burst_factor 6 Allow temporary bursts of this multiple.
muc_max_nick_length 23 The maximum allowed length of user nicknames
muc_max_char_count 5664 The maximum allowed number of bytes in a message
muc_max_line_count 23 The maximum allowed number of lines in a message
muc_limit_base_cost 1 Base cost of sending a stanza
muc_line_count_multiplier 0.1 Additional cost of each newline in the body of a message

For more understanding of how these values are used, see the algorithm section below.

Algorithm

A certain number of events are allowed per second, given by muc_event_rate. An event rate of 1 allows one event per second, and event rate of 3 allows three events per second, and 0.5 allows one event every two seconds, and so on.

Obviously MUC conversations are not exactly steady streams of events. Sometimes multiple people will talk at once. This is handled by the muc_burst_factor option.

A burst factor of 2 will allow 2 times as many events at once, for 2 seconds, before throttling will be triggered. A factor of 5, 5 times as many events for 5 seconds.

When the limit is reached, an error response will be generated telling the user the MUC is overactive, and asking them to try again.

Compatibility

trunk* Works
0.12 Works

*as of 2024-10-22


Installation

With the plugin installer in Prosody 0.12 you can use:

sudo prosodyctl install --server=https://modules.prosody.im/rocks/ mod_muc_limits

For earlier versions see the documentation for installing 3rd party modules