Comment by winkelmann
6 months ago
I'm not a web developer, but I've picked up some bits of knowledge here and there, mostly from troubleshooting issues I encounter while using websites.
I know there are a number of headers used to control cross-site access to websites, and the linked blog post shows archive.today's denial-of-service script sending random queries to the site's search function. Shouldn't there be a way to prevent those from running when they're requested from within a third-party site?
You can't completely prevent the browser from sending the request—after all, it needs to figure out whether to block the website from reading the response.
However, browsers will first send a preflight request for non-simple requests before sending the actual request. If the DDOS were effective because the search operation was expensive, then the blog could put search behind a non-simple request, or require a valid CSRF token before performing the search.
> I know there are a number of headers used to control cross-site access to websites
Mostly these headers are designed around preventing reading content. Sending content generally does not require anything.
(As a kind of random tidbit, this is why csrf tokens are a thing, you can't prevent sending so websites test to see if you were able to read the token in a previous request)
This is partially historical. The rough rule is if it was possible to make the request without javascript then it doesn't need any special headers (preflight)
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One side publishes words, the other DDoSes. One side could just ignore the other and go about their business, the other cannot. One is using force, which naturally leads to resistance and additional attention, the other is not.
Both sides look like they have been bullied in the past and not found their way out of reproducing the pattern yet.
Words can have bad consequences. We‘ll see what will happen to Banksy after Reuters published words.
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> The blog is still online and only exists as a part of a harassment campaign targeting archive.today
The blog has a lot of more posts on random topics. Why do you imply that the owner of the bloh is part of a harassment campaign and "only" that is the reason for this years old blog to exist?
Because all the content in the past 4+ years is about archive.today?
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You think DDoS (which is illegal btw) is okay as long as you don't like the target?
Considering the site itself is an illegal archive of websites, I think its obvious most of us don't treat what's 'legal' as a guide to whats 'moral'.
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Harassment an doxing are both illegal.
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While I would it also better to a bit redact names and details mentioned in the original article in hindsight, I hardly find real defamation. I guess you want to provide random unproven evidence if someone is target of various foreign law enforcement and commercial sites. In the article they even call for donations to archive.today . As far as I read the tone of the post is full of admiration. Funny thing is that IMHO the rather childish JavaScript attack gives credibility to the post after all. In all this I somehow hope that we see a legal solution to all this major global copyright crisis that has been reinforced by LLM training. (If you want conspiracy theory: that I guess would be easy monetization for archive these days selling their snapshots)
Defamation? No.
Doxing? Yes.
It's clear that the person running archive.today does not actively publicize their identity.
> As far as I read the tone of the post is full of admiration
Exactly like an unhinged fan stalking a celebrity.
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