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Nepenthes is a tarpit to catch AI web crawlers

(zadzmo.org)
646 points blendergeek | 2 comments | 16 Jan 25 13:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.451s | source
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bflesch ◴[16 Jan 25 15:46 UTC] No.42726827[source]▶
Haha, this would be an amazing way to test the ChatGPT crawler reflective DDOS vulnerability [1] I published last week.

Basically a single HTTP Request to ChatGPT API can trigger 5000 HTTP requests by ChatGPT crawler to a website.

The vulnerability is/was thoroughly ignored by OpenAI/Microsoft/BugCrowd but I really wonder what would happen when ChatGPT crawler interacts with this tarpit several times per second. As ChatGPT crawler is using various Azure IP ranges I actually think the tarpit would crash first.

The vulnerability reporting experience with OpenAI / BugCrowd was really horrific. It's always difficult to get attention for DOS/DDOS vulnerabilities and companies always act like they are not a problem. But if their system goes dark and the CEO calls then suddenly they accept it as a security vulnerability.

I spent a week trying to reach OpenAI/Microsoft to get this fixed, but I gave up and just published the writeup.

I don't recommend you to exploit this vulnerability due to legal reasons.

[1] https://github.com/bf/security-advisories/blob/main/2025-01-...

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hassleblad23 ◴[16 Jan 25 16:34 UTC] No.42727528[source]▶
I am not surprised that OpenAI is not interested if fixing this.
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bflesch ◴[16 Jan 25 16:54 UTC] No.42727750[source]▶
Their security.txt email address replies and asks you to go on BugCrowd. BugCrowd staff is unwilling (or too incompetent) to run a bash curl command to reproduce the issue, while also refusing to forward it to OpenAI.

The support@openai.com waits an hour before answering with ChatGPT answer.

Issues raised on GitHub directly towards their engineers were not answered.

Also Microsoft CERT & Azure security team do not reply or care respond to such things (maybe due to lack of demonstrated impact).

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permo-w ◴[16 Jan 25 18:39 UTC] No.42729126[source]▶
why try this hard for a private company that doesn't employ you?
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1. sandworm101 ◴[17 Jan 25 15:16 UTC] No.42738383[source]▶
Because its microsoft. They know that MS will not respond, likely because MS already knows all about the problem. The fun is in pointing out how MS is so ossified and internally convoluted that it cannot apply fixes in any reasonable time. It is the last scene and the people are laughing at emperor walking around without clothes.
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2. bflesch ◴[17 Jan 25 18:19 UTC] No.42741529[source]▶
Microsoft CERT offers forms to fill out about DDOS attacks. I reported their IP addresses and the server they were hitting including the timestamp.

All of the reports to Microsoft CERT had proof-of-concept code and links to github and bugcrowd issues. Microsoft CERT sent me an individual email for every single IP address that was reported for DDOS.

And then half an hour later they sent another email for every single IP address with subject "Notice: Cert.microsoft.com - Case Closure SIRXXXXXXXXX".

I can understand that the meager volume of requests I've sent to my own server doesn't show up in Microsoft's DDOS-recognizer software, but it's just ridiculous that they can't even read the description text or care enough to forward it to their sister company. Just a single person to care enough to write "thanks, we'll look into it".