Bouncer Bot v1.0

Server security, guaranteed.

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Purpose

The purpose of the Bouncer is to provide a 2FA email service to groups that desire a way to domain-lock their servers. This is a function that is available on other platforms like Slack, but doesn't yet exist on Discord.

Many users who are asked to join a new server, whether it be for fun, for work, or school, likely will not create a new account for this purpose. The Bouncer's goal is to make it possible for users to continue to use their personal accounts to join servers like these, while also having a way to confirm their domain. This also serves as a security function for businesses and universities that wish to avoid raids, and maintain a professional workspace.

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Quickstart

The quickstart for Bouncer is fairly straightforward. This guide assumes that you have no virtual environment set up, no version of Python installed, and none of the necessary APIs installed either. Running Bouncer locally is not suggested, and it is suggested that you instead run this bot from a server to assure nearly 24/7 access to Bouncer.

0. Clone the repo
   Create a working directory and clone the repo inside this directory. If you need help in doing so, a tutorial can be found here.

1. Set up a Virtual Environment (Suggested)
   In your working directory (not inside the repo), set up a virtual environment. This requires python. Bouncer was built and tested using Python 3.8.5 and cannot guarantee functionality on older versions of Python. You can install Python 3.8.5 here. You can set up a virtual environment by running the following command in cmd/terminal in your working directory:

   python3 -m venv bouncer-env
   

   then activate the virtual environment by running:

   bouncer-env/Scripts/activate.bat
   

   or on MacOS:

   source bouncer-env/bin/activate
   

2. Install required Libraries
   Change to your repo directory and run the following command to install all libraries used within this code from the requirements.txt document:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Run Bouncer
   Bouncer is now ready to run. You can do so through the command line. In your working directory, run:

   python BouncerBot.py
   

   Bouncer will now be active on Discord.

   An example of a minimal bot is shown here: https://discordpy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html

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Setup

While there is a small set of requirements, they are rather easy steps to follow, and the process should take no longer than five minutes.

1. Invite the bot to the server.

   This link allows anyone to add this bot to their server:

   Click here to invite Bouncer to your server

   The details of the link above are documented here:

   https://discordpy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/discord.html#inviting-your-bot

2. Set up your server.
   Your server needs to be protected, by default, from anyone who might randomly join who does not belong there. In order to enable such protections, you must go to your server settings, and disable all permissions for the @everyone role. Then, create a role with the default permissions you want your basic users to have. In this version, it is required that you name your role 'Student' with the exact same capitalization. Any modification to this name will cause the bot to not work.

3. Add support for current users.
   Give all your current users the default role (in this version, the 'Student' role) so that they maintain their presence on the Discord server.

4. Congratulations.
   That is everything! The bot is now set up and ready to thwart unwanted users from joining the server.

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Functionality

Bouncer functions as expected from a 2FA email system. The flow has been designed to make it easy for users to verify their identity, and frustrating for intruders to deal with. Here is what to expect:

1. Upon joining the server, you will receive a message from Bouncer:
   
2. If you enter a bad email, Bouncer will let you know:
   
3. Once you enter an email associated with the domain, it will notify you:
   
4. You get 5 attempts to enter the correct code:
   
5. And if you exceed the 5 attempts, the process will restart:
   
6. Providing a correct email will yield an email in this format:
   
7. Once you enter the correct code, Bouncer will let you know:
   
8. And you will get your role within the server:
   
9. If you fail the process 3 times, you will be informed and kicked from the server:

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References

Bouncer is a bot created by Cameron Gould, with support from Masao Kitamura, Adian Dionisio, and Trey Moen in the interest of creating a security feature for the Computer Science LMU server. Further development to modularize end generalize the code in order to support more services than just LMU is planned, as well as added functionality to improve user experience.