Buckle up. Voat is currently being hit with a malicious attack. This couldn't have possibly happened at a worse time for me personally and I may have to put Voat into lockdown mode or even set it to Read Only. Perhaps we will resurrect the
bit privilege checking goat (you know you miss having your bits privilege checked).
I'm hoping that the code is in a good enough place to handle a majority of the incoming traffic, but expect slow responses.
I will try my best to keep Voat online. Wish me luck.
Edit:
I'm still waiting for the main attack. Every DDOS we've been hit with before follows a pattern of probing exploits, quiet time, then the full attack. So we will see, but waiting is the hardest part
Edit 2:
As of now I feel they've postponed. After taking us down two times the morning of this announcement, I've seen no further activity. A temporary win I suppose.
https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806
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Raxotic ago
8ch experienced an attack this weekend and the site operator said whoever it was had deep pockets. Was wondering if Voat was next.
PuttItOut ago
Voat endured a ~30 day DDOS previously (among countless others). I know who did it and 'deep pockets' is an understatement.
MadWorld ago
Time for some lecture from Professor @PeaceSeeker, Voat's historian.
PeaceSeeker ago
On the very day that the database Port attempt #1 began, the DDOS attacks began. This led (or at least largely contributed) to the initial failure of the Port. Here is another record of that day, recounting some of the errors we experienced accessing Voat.
Putt then followed up with an announcement about the attacks, originally posting on the 2nd of October (just over a year ago). He periodically revisited the sticky to edit-in updates (five times, it appears). As you can see, the last edit was made on the 27th of October, almost a full month after the attacks began, and as Edit 5 states, *even then the attacks were not over. Here is my account of the attacks themselves; these were the attacks, if I recall correctly, which led to Voat's removing of the searchbar, killing of Voat Chat, and disabling many inactive subverses (see here where Putt cites the "last DDOS attack on Voat" as the cause for disabling subverses).
In other words, the last time Voat was hit with a major DDOS attack it lasted a month, it was so severe that it could only possibly be financed with someone with insane amounts of resources (a billionaire, a government, or the international finance system itself, which as we all know has actively sought Voat's demise), the attacks threw off Voat's initial attempts at porting Voat's database and delayed the Port by more than a month (see reference to port not being 100% deployed), and we are still feeling the ramifications of those attacks to this day.
We are around the anniversary of the last attacks; I hope they are not this time so severe, especially if Putt says it's a bad time for him. I recall being very annoyed last time at the timing, and this time is no better.
For those who may be curious: /u/kevdude, /u/Crensch, /u/Germ22, /u/Nadeshda, /u/Vindicator
MadWorld ago
@Raxotic, see parent, regarding last major attack.