sysadmins/webmasters of fedi:

[stonebear2@hachyderm.io]

@Argonel

I would absolutely fsck the hell out of somebody doing that. If it tries to get the bogus .js file, feed it something that grabs the incoming IP and feeds it back on itself .... basically make the bots DDOS themselves.

Like in the old days sending an XTREE packet (which would lock up a Windows box, back when the skript kiddies used such things...)

Don't MESS with Mama Bear, motherfrackers.

@ansuz @oblomov

[ansuz@social.cryptography.dog]

@stonebear2 @Argonel @oblomov the main complication is that it seems there are lots of different scraper projects exhibiting this behaviour, so there's not too many methods that can be applied broadly.

zip-bombs (as others have suggested) are fairly likely to be effective, but they require extra traffic on my part. blocking them is the most universal and scalable response.

that said, if I ever encounter a scraper that I simply can't block, I'll probably take the zip-bomb route.

[ansuz@social.cryptography.dog]

Since so many people are boosting this thread I think I'll take the opportunity to mention that I'm available for hire on a part-time or contract basis.

Feel free to reach out if you like my ideas about computer-related topics and have both the budget and need of someone who has such ideas.

I can be reached by Fediverse DM or the contact form on my website:

https://cryptography.dog/contact/

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@ansuz My random thought is that if you block them quickly, they will notice and adapt. If you tarpit(*) them then it might be effective for longer, and have a greater chance of poisoning the bad actors.

(*) I know, verbing weirds language

CC: @Argonel @oblomov

[androcat@toot.cat]

@ansuz

One thing to note is also that the Atlas "Browser" is a distributed scrape/crawl attack. It's an browser that users can use, but it actually scrapes the sites and sends the info to OpenAI.

So, yes, we should all expect extremely erratic scraping to be going on, and countermeasures are important.

Of course, if the "browser" doesn't appear to work, the users will stop using it.

@stonebear2 @Argonel @oblomov

[ansuz@social.cryptography.dog]

I just published a blog post summing up my most pertinent thoughts about dealing with badly-behaved web-scraping bots:

https://cryptography.dog/blog/AI-scrapers-request-commented-scripts/

It isn't exactly a Hallowe'en-themed article, but today is the 31st and the topic is concerned with pranking people who come knocking on my website's ports, so it's somewhat appropriate.

#infosec #bots #halloween #scrapers #AI #someMoreHashtagsHere

[ansuz@social.cryptography.dog]

looks like someone reshared my article to Hacker News where someone has (predictably) already commented on the headline without reading the article 😅

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45773347

[ansuz@social.cryptography.dog]

it's like reddit if every user was a meth-head tech bro

[ansuz@social.cryptography.dog]

my system for catching anomalous HTTP traffic just flagged someone sending me an API key as an "x-api-key" header.

that's about what I'd expect from the average HN reader

[colinthemathmo@mathstodon.xyz]

@ansuz Some of the replies/comments in that thread are just insane!

Scraping is fine, even when there's a robots.txt (and other signs) saying not to, but DDoSing is illegal and you should sue people who do that.

Just ... what ?!?

Some of these people are in a totally different reality.

No, not reality ... the other thing.

[ansuz@social.cryptography.dog]

@ColinTheMathmo oh yea, a lot of them have very clearly had way too much silicon-valley-kool-aid to drink and were basically incoherent.

I was actually pleasantly surprised at a few others, though, I can't help but feel that the more sensible ones might be wasting their time commenting on HN and should just join fedi

[neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk]

@ansuz @ColinTheMathmo

Definitely a "take the rough with the smooth" thing.

I don't tend to read HN commentary on my stuff. (Sometimes, but not always)

[tris@chaos.social]

@ansuz If Marginalia is already there then:
https://alpha.mwmbl.org
https://stract.com

[oblomov@sociale.network]

@ansuz @ColinTheMathmo this has been my experience also in the rare cases when my writing gets shared on HN (or lobste.rs or reddit, FWIW): there a bunch of ignorami who are full-in on the corporate propaganda, and a few sane voices that try to highlight how bad that is for everyone. 1/2

[oblomov@sociale.network]

@ansuz @ColinTheMathmo

On the one hand, I agree that they're mostly wasting their time and would do better to spend it elsewhere; OTOH, I am glad for the work they do, and who knows, maybe their words reach others that can then do better.

2/2

[rune@social.sound-city.dk]

@ansuz responding to someone on hacker news that they're too good for HN and should join fedi would be absolutely hilarious to no one but me

[ansuz@social.cryptography.dog]

@rune I might have tried it if I had an account there, but then imagine if I was wrong and that was their one good take. fedi equivalent of buyer's remorse