[AI Minor News Flash] Archive.today Weaponizing Users? Retaliatory DDoS Script Discovered in CAPTCHA Pages
📰 Executive Summary
- The web archiving service archive.today has been caught leveraging the browsers of users stuck on its CAPTCHA pages to launch a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against the personal blog “Gyrovague.”
- While the CAPTCHA page is open, a hidden JavaScript executes every 300 milliseconds, sending search requests with randomized strings to the target blog.
- This attack is suspected to be a retaliatory strike following an OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) investigative piece about archive.today published by the blog owner in 2023.
💡 Key Technical Intel
- Cache-Busting Tactics: The script generates random query strings to bypass server-side caching, forcing the target’s server to process every request and aggressively consume CPU resources.
- Legal Harassment: The blog owner revealed they received weaponized GDPR deletion requests and threatening emails suggesting their name would be linked to AI-generated adult content.
- AI Counter-Defense: The victim utilized Gemini (Google’s AI) to draft sophisticated legal rebuttals citing “journalistic exceptions” and “public interest,” successfully securing protection from their host, WordPress.com.
🦈 Haru-same’s Eye (Curator’s Deep Dive)
Turning your own user base into a “frenzied shark pack” of bots is a low blow, even for the wild west of the web! 🦈 Using the dwell time on a CAPTCHA page—where users are practically forced to wait for several seconds—as a launchpad for a DDoS is deviously clever but ethically bankrupt. Specifically, the implementation of randomized search queries shows a clear intent to “bite” directly into the server’s processing power by nullifying any CDN or caching layers.
What’s even more fascinating is the AI-driven legal warfare. Seeing a developer use Gemini to instantly generate high-level legal defenses against “GDPR trolling” is a masterclass in modern cyber-defense. It’s a classic 2026 scenario: defending against a technical attack with tech, and a legal attack with AI. Pure digital Darwinism!
🚀 Future Outlook
Archive.today shows no signs of calling off the dogs (or sharks), and the situation is escalating into a potential legal showdown. However, the community is already fighting back; major ad-blockers like uBlock Origin have started adding these attack domains to their blocklists. Expect a surge in “browser-side firewall” tools as users realize their tabs can be hijacked for someone else’s vendetta.
💬 Haru-same’s Parting Byte
When a service you use every day starts using your browser to take a bite out of someone else’s hard work… that’s a shark move I can’t get behind! In the age of OSINT, the only way to survive is with AI-powered defenses and a very thick skin (or scales). Stay frosty and keep your dev tools open! 🦈🔥
