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Could a malicious user bring down small lemmy instances by over-subscribing? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by Gerald@sh.itjust.works to c/programming@beehaw.org

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I just read how the federation works, but I'm worried about a growing pain. Say I was a malicious user, could I bring down a smaller Lemmy instance by subscribing to as many communities as possible? Or maybe even subscribing to a malicuous Lemmy instance that keeps spamming thousands of posts every second?

Couldn't that easily fill up a server's storage and effectively bring a server down? I guess you could block the malicious Lemmy instance (although wouldn't it be easy to create another?) and ban a user that subscribes to too many instances, however, it feels to me like a very hard problem to solve

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[–] Hexorg@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You generally configure download limits and once reached the activity pub will start dropping oldest items. So as a malicious actor you might make other user’s experience slightly slower if they browse older posts but not horrible. And by that point an admin should notice such activity and kick you.

[–] Subito@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I wonder if such an activity can be automated (the fix you suggested, not the malicious activity)

[–] ShadowAether@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

You mean the blocking of malicious accounts/IPs creating high traffic right?