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Nectar: An Active Defense Middleware for Economic Deterrence of Web Scrapers
ID：33 View Protection：ATTENDEE Updated Time：2026-07-22 16:22:20 Hits：17 Online

Start Time：2026-07-30 17:20（Asia/Kolkata）

Duration：15min

Session：S6 Artificial Intelligence Use Cases » S6-2Artificial Intelligence Use Cases

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Abstract
As automated web scraping represents nearly half of global internet traffic, current perimeter-based security ap-proaches fail to create a deterrent effect against modern distributed attacks. This paper presents Project Nectar, an application-layer active defense middleware designed for the Node.js/Express.js framework. In contrast with passive firewalls aiming at the identification and rejection of the attacker, Nectar concentrates on the economic cost of the attack itself. By combin-ing a Robots Exclusion Protocol compliance checker with invisible bait injection, asynchronous HTTP Tar Pit and cryptographically signed Recursive Dynamic Path Generation (DPG) maze, Nectar creates an endless cycle of resource attrition by delivering low-bandwidth high-latency responses to non-compliant scrapers. An attrition ratio of 1:600 is achieved where a minimal CPU usage by the defender leads to the exhaustion of threads used by distributed botnet scraper attacks at all three adversarial levels. The solution provides a false positive rate of 0 percent in 50,000 simulated user sessions, preserving user experience and maximizing adversary costs. This paper describes Nectar’s threat model, fully implements the algorithmic approach, and evaluates the solution against Level 1 (primitive script), Level 2 (framework-based) and Level 3 (headless browser) adversaries.
Keywords
Active defense;web security;tarpit;web scraping
Speaker
Ishaan Khurana
Student SRM Institute of Science and Technology *

Submission Author
Ishaan Khurana SRM Institute of Science and Technology *
Abhishek Kumar SRM Institute of Science and Technology *
Sugan J SRM Institute of Science and Technology *
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Important Date

  • Conference Date

    Jul 30

    2026

    to

    Aug 01

    2026

  • Jul 28 2026

    Registration deadline

  • Jul 30 2026

    Draft paper submission deadline

Sponsored By
The United Societies of Science
Organized By
Kongunadu College of Engineering and Technology
Supported By
IEEE Section
IEEE Madras Section
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