Flashes of Panic

Here’s something I find in my stats every now and then, under “Failure report”:

2: /cgi-bin/FormMail.pl
2: /cgi-bin/contact.pl
2: /cgi-bin/contact.cgi
2: /cgi-bin/formmail.pl
2: /cgi-bin/mail.cgi
2: /cgi-bin/formmail.cgi
2: /mail.cgi
2: /cgi-bin/mailform.pl
2: /cgi/formmail

This is the trace of someone crawling my site looking for web-to-email gateways which they can exploit to send spam. Of course, being a relatively clueful site manager, I have no such gateways, but that doesn’t stop people from looking.

The part I don’t understand is the emotional response I have—it literally makes my skin crawl. The feeling, for me, is like sitting in your home and watching the doorknob jiggle as someone checks to see if it’s unlocked.

I have little fantasies about writing a small script to sit in /cgi-bin/formmail.pl which will accept the connection, and then do … nothing … very … slowly. Or cram the input right back down the sending connection, a few thousand times. Unfortunately, this will probably remain fantasy, since I don’t trust myself to write such a script in a way that won’t bog down my own server. The hosting company wouldn’t be pleased with me, I’m sure.

I don’t understand why it’s become such a visceral loathing, or why I have such a strong urge to attempt payback. It can’t be good for me.

Now playing: Fishing In The Morning from The Beauty Of The Rain by Dar Williams