Archive.today Allegations — Technical Walkthrough & Safe Simulation

Simulation: Repeated Request Attack — New Visual Design

Safe, visual reproduction of the reported archive.today CAPTCHA pattern and step-by-step explanation. All claims are presented as reported and linked below.

Brief

What was reported

The investigator published a code snippet allegedly present on the archive.today CAPTCHA page that used a repeating timer to perform requests every ~300ms to a blog’s search URL, with randomized query strings preventing cache reuse. The primary writeup and community threads are linked in Sources. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}

Simulated request stream

No network calls performed — visual only.

Interval 300 ms

Requests/sec

0.00

Total requests

0

Sim mode

visual-only

[Simulation log — simulated URLs shown; no real requests are sent]

Step 1 — Page load

The CAPTCHA page loads a small client-side script.

Step 2 — Timer starts

A repeating timer runs every X ms (default 300).

Step 3 — Build request

Each tick builds a URL like https://gyrovague.com/?s=random to avoid cache hits.

Step 4 — Repeat while open

As long as the tab remains open, the loop continues to generate requests.

Step 5 — Real impact

Multiple visitors executing this script simultaneously create high aggregate load on the target.

The example observed by the investigator showed a `setInterval(..., 300)` pattern with a randomized query string; see source link in the Sources section. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}

Technical explanation (plain language)

- A short timer-based loop in JavaScript (`setInterval`) can execute repeatedly while a page is open.
- If the loop builds unique URLs on each tick (for example by appending a random token), common caches cannot reuse responses.
- Each unique request forces the origin server to do work (search, database queries, render), multiplying server load as more clients run the loop simultaneously.

If a page runs ~3 requests/sec per client, then 100 simultaneous clients create ~300 requests/sec — a rate that can quickly overwhelm modest hosting. Use rate limits and WAF rules to protect endpoints.

Embedded evidence

The videos above show independent walkthroughs and analyses published by community participants; consult the primary threads below for full context. :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}

Sources & primary materials

• Gyrovague — investigator’s detailed post (code snippet, screenshots, correspondence). :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}
• Hacker News discussion — thread analyzing behavior and verification. :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}
• Reddit /r/DataHoarder — community thread with logs and commentary. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}
• Public paste: redacted correspondence (linked from the investigator’s post)
• Lobsters thread (community link)

All claims about operator motives or identity are presented as reported in the linked sources. Verify primary materials before making legal or public assertions. :contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}