The comment spammer that hit me Thursday is back. Since then I added a patch which rejects comments containing certain strings before it even gets held for moderation. I just added a few patterns from his latest spam, so he’ll be gone soon. As soon as I get any spam, I add any unique strings from it to my filter and they’re gone for good.
Update: I converted my patch to a plugin. In the short time it took me to remove the hack and install the plugin, he managed to get in another spam. In addition to the plugin, I added some code to my .htaccess to deny all requests from the particular software he’s using.
Update #2: This spammer is mentioned in the WordPress forums. It looks like a lot of WP blogs are getting hit.