Bots flooded my anti-bot startup with 55,000 fake signups
4 days ago
- #transparency
- #cybersecurity
- #bot_attack
- A bot detection startup experienced a 55,000-bot attack on its signup form, revealing critical security flaws.
- The attack bypassed honeypot defenses due to lack of rate limiting and direct POST requests to the API endpoint.
- Internal bot-detection API failed because it was called without behavioral signals, relying only on a userId.
- Email verification for fake signups threatened domain reputation, but a provider's daily cap prevented a bounce storm.
- Immediate fixes included implementing per-IP rate limits, filtering unverified emails, deleting junk data, and adding monitoring.
- Lessons: Rate limiting is essential, honeypots are limited, proper internal tool usage is crucial, and free-tier limits can act as safeguards.
- The incident was transparently shared to align with the company's values of openness and continuous improvement.