Requesting feeds too quickly severe
Multiple requests for feed content are being made by this app in a matter of seconds.
Why it's a problemThe activity strains a website's resources because it needs to process more of the application's requests than necessary, all at once. Depending on how often and frequent the excessive requests happen, it can knock a website completely offline, causing it to exceed its bandwidth and traffic limits, making the website more costly for its owners.
What it means for usersFeeds are likely to blocked or restricted when used in this application due to the excessive requests.
How to fix itThe application should space out each feed request made to feeds, especially when the feeds are all from the same website.
Failing to slow down its requests severe
This app continues making requests for feed content on a website, even after the site informs it to wait a while before making any more requests.
Why it's a problemThe excessive traffic makes a website sluggish by hogging the site's resources that can be used for other site visitors. The behavior can also cause websites to exceed their limits, making them more costly to maintain. In fact, one of the main reasons the site tells the app to slow down is usually to avoid an increase in costs.
What it means for usersWebsites are likely to block this app from accessing feed content, causing feeds to stop working.
How to fix itWhen a website tells this app to hold off on requesting content for a specific amount of time, it should do so.
Using multiple networks to request feeds too frequently severe
This application is requesting feeds multiple times using different networks. A malicious bot will use this tactic to DDoS attack a website by disguising itself as a large number of human site visitors in different locations all over the world. This fools the website into thinking the traffic is legitimate in hopes to stay undetected, bypass a website's restrictions, and gain unfettered access to as much of the website's content as fast as possible.
Why it's a problemIf done consistently and at high rates, it can take a website completely offline, costing website owners time and money to mitigate the issue.
What it means for usersThe app is likely being rate-limited by websites, causing feeds used in the application to be sluggish and receive updated content much later than normal. In severe cases, websites are likely to immediately block the application from its content, and feeds used in the application will stop working entirely.
How to fix itThe application should fix this behavior as soon as possible by restricting its requests to one IP address and network per feed request at a time.
Requesting feed content unnecessarily severe
This app is unnecessarily re-requesting feed content from websites without waiting until there's actually new content published.
Why it's a problemThe unnecessary traffic wastes a website's resources that can be used for its other site visitors.
What it means for usersWebsites are likely to limit this app from accessing feed content, causing feeds to not update properly or stop working entirely.
How to fix it
The application needs to be updated to
wait
until the max-age of
Cache-Control header expires before re-requesting
feed content or properly implement
conditional requests.
Requests are unidentifiable severe
Feed requests appear to be associated with this app but can't be accurately identified.
Why it's a problemA feed reader that can't be identified is often unfortunately used in ways that are severely abusive to a website, either intentionally by malicious users or unintentionally by its users who may be unaware. Since this application is unidentifiable, there's no way to validate its requests and mitigate any potential abuse.
What it means for usersWebsites are likely to block or severely limit this app from their feeds, causing feeds to behave unexpectedly or not work at all.
How to fix itThe application or its usage needs to be verified, which will remove any limitations or restrictions, and feeds used in the application will be much more reliable.
Requesting feed content from the wrong location critical
It's common for feed applications to grab content from some unconventional location on a website to generate a feed because the website doesn't provide it. However, even though the site already tells this app where feeds are located, the app is still attempting to extract content from other areas on the website that clearly aren't feeds.
Why it's a problemWhen a feed app doesn't request content from the right location or tries getting content from areas on a site not designated for feed consumption, the activity looks suspicious. This is likely to cause website owners to block this app from accessing its content.
What it means for usersFeed content obtained from the wrong location can be unpredictable and may not display correctly in the app. If websites block this app because of the behavior, which is likely, feeds won't work at all.
How to fix itWhen the app visits a webpage to retrieve feed content, it should:
-
Get the website's feed location from the
autodiscovery
linkelement of the page and use that location for all subsequent feed requests - Update any attempts by its users to subscribe to the incorrect location in the application to the correct new location without making any further requests to the website for this info
- Ensure the request isn't made to a location on the website that has been explicitly disallowed in its robots.txt file
Not using updated feed locations critical
When a feed from a website is moved to a new location, the website informs the application where the feed has been moved to. However, instead of using the new locations of feeds, this application continuously tries to request feeds from their old locations.
Why it's a problemIt causes websites to use more computer resources than necessary to forcibly redirect the application to the rightful place over and over again.
What it means for usersFeeds will stop working or become fully inoperable when a website blocks the application due to this behavior.
How to fix itWhen a feed has been relocated to a new URL, the application should use the new URL and cease attempting to request feed content from the old one.