this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/177673

Cross posting this here for visibility since lemmy.ml federation has been very hit or miss the last week. Original post from @sunaurus@lemm.ee

Today, a bunch of new instances appeared in the top of the user count list. It appears that these instances are all being bombarded by bot sign-ups.

For now, it seems that the bots are especially targeting instances that have:

  • Open sign-ups
  • No captcha
  • No e-mail verification

I have put together a spreadsheet of some of the most suspicious cases here.

If this is affecting you, I would highly recommend considering one of the following options:

  1. Close sign-ups entirely
  2. Only allow sign-ups with applications
  3. Enable e-mail verification + captcha for sign-ups

Additionally, I would recommend pre-emptively banning as many bot accounts as possible, before they start posting spam!

Please comment below if you have any questions or anything useful to add.

top 8 comments
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[–] nucleative@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I think there is a gold rush going on here - a race to register usernames and community names in the event that a mass migration starts.

[–] minus5m@fedia.io 1 points 1 year ago

This seems to be an issue on reddit aswell currently. Someone was guessing it may have to do with the presidential elections next year?

[–] tyfi@wirebase.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You should make the spreadsheet private, otherwise botters will find it. Don’t make their job too easy.

[–] Zetaphor@zemmy.cc 1 points 1 year ago

Not my spreadsheet, this is a crosspost. Also it looks like the content is being auto-generated and the sheet is read-only. There's nothing they could really do by having this information.

[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why wouldn't an instance require an email and a captcha? Seems like such an easy add that's totally worth if it even just reduces bot traffic.

[–] RQG@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can see a reason for email in that people might want to minimize storing personal data.

A captcha seems pretty harmless in any case.

[–] PoisonedPrisonPanda@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

anonaddy or simplelogin are your friend.

[–] RQG@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Friends? I never heard of them.

I'll have a look though.