Nepenthes Software Tool Designed to Trap Web Crawlers
/ 1 min read
🪤 Nepenthes: A Malicious Tarpit Designed to Trap Web Crawlers. Nepenthes is a software tool that creates a deceptive environment to ensnare web crawlers, particularly those scraping data for AI models. It generates an endless sequence of pages with links that loop back into the tarpit, effectively wasting the crawlers’ resources. The system can be configured to add intentional delays and optional Markov-babble content to further confuse and exhaust crawlers. While it can be used defensively to protect websites from unwanted scraping, it also has offensive applications for those looking to disrupt AI training processes. Users are warned about the potential for significant CPU load and the risk of being removed from search engine results if deployed improperly.
