EDIT: I’m putting this up front so it’s the FIRST thing you see and read: I WAS WRONG I ASSUMED (and I know better) that it wasn’t possible for me to have 3000 accounts created within a day or two of going live. I ASSUMED what I saw was accounts that were NOT local, I WAS WRONG I created a process to remove the bot accounts from my database without crashing my site. I have tested and it looks like all functions are working. If you need help because you suddenly have thousands more accounts than you would suspect ask me for the procedure. I’ll gladly provide it.
I was able to identify bot accounts by looking at creation times. They accounts are grouped by “batches” where the account creation times are within seconds of each other. That’s not typically going to happen with random humans creating accounts.
I used a tool to see how many users my site had. Once I saw the count was larger than expected, I wondered who these users were. I checked the database table and saw a huge list. I know for a fact that all these users are not on my instance. I was able to confirm that the database includes email address and password hash. This SHOULD mean that if someone tries to login, and their authentication information is sitting in my database, they can login at my site locally, correct? I only ask because I did not find an entry anywhere that lists a “home” instance for them to log in to. Am I correct in understanding that accounts are distributed like communities are?
I was able to confirm that the database includes email address and password hash.
Uhhhh not loving that if true… Why would password hashes need to be sent all over the planet…? That’s a security bomb just ticking.
Shouldn’t each instance only need to be tracking user Metadata, with only the original users instance handling authentication…? After all my personal interaction is happening on my instance.
You can see in the source that password hashes are not sent over activitypub.
Yep, but its only the Metadata[1]. I can’t log in to your instance, but because your instance has consumed content from beehaw from my account I’m listed.
See https://lemmy.ninja/u/rknuu@beehaw.org
- at least I haven’t been able to share logins between instances yet.
It’s also worth noting the statistics are only for what you consumed. My profile at beehaw shows very different numbers than yours
Lemmy.ninja: 2 posts, 26 comments
Beehaw: 14 posts, 72 comments
How are you so certain that they’re not on your instance? I see that your sign up form is open. There’ve been other reports that spambots have discovered Lemmy and are signing up on instances en masse.
We’re entering a world where corporate media - be that music, television, movies, books, even political messaging - will soon be 99% algorithm driven. Train once, repeat ad infinitum. They already have an idea of how long it takes for public appetite to grow tired of the familiar and start craving new, and that will guide how often the algorithm should be re-trained. Meanwhile we, the consumers, will be kept fat and happy in our metaphorical pens being dished up a constant supply of delicious, processed food entertainment manipulation while they milk us for every dollar, minute, and vote that they can.
Yes accounts are distributed to each server. Same as communities.
