https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=44056 --- Comment #4 from Evelyn Hartline <evelyn@bywatersolutions.com> --- (In reply to Gretchen Maxeiner from comment #2)
100% in favor of what needs to be done to protect from the bots, but I think it should ideally include some option to still allow the human public in for such services as export. Many libraries have their catalogs open for research use to non-patrons. And as a cataloger, I regularly download MARC records from OPACs that I have no affiliation with. If OPAC export can be locked down from bot activity, I'd love to see some kind of human guest pathway included.
The challenge from a security/stability perspective is having a public pathway that somehow isn't bot-accessible. From what we've been seeing, if it's public, bots can and absolutely will abuse it. When bots abuse these paths, it creates strain on the system, leading to system slowness, instability, and server problems/downtime. Real (human) patrons and library staff are impacted when these bots abuse these endpoints, so we have to protect that access first. The unfortunate thing is that we now live in a world much different than the one when many access policies were created. We have to change with the times, or risk leaving libraries at the mercy of bots and worse. This is a larger conversation than the one this bug is about, but I think it's worth bringing up since libraries will need to be considering what access should look like now rather than what it has looked like before. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are watching all bug changes.