A major security flaw in ChatGPT could allow bad actors to use the API to launch massive DDoS attacks. The researchers reported the issue to OpenAI and called on the company to fix the infrastructure to help eliminate access to this potential cyber attack.

If you’ve never experienced a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, you’re probably not sure what to make of it. At the most basic level, these cyber attacks result from a threat actor sending an extremely large number of requests to a specific website or URL. When this happens, the website’s server is usually overwhelmed, causing it to shut down due to heavy traffic.

Researcher Benjamin Fleisch outlined this new ChatGPT security flaw a GitHub post. The flaw lies in how the ChatGPT API handles HTTP POST requests to a specific endpoint. Because there is no limit to the number of links a user can provide via the “URLs” parameter, bad actors can add the same URL as many times as they want, effectively breaking the API into a website or platform. is allowed to do DDoS.

An example of ChatGPT catcher code from a different Mac app.
An example of ChatGPT catcher code from a different Mac app. Image source: OpenAI

Obviously, this is a huge problem and one that will need to be addressed immediately to avoid any large-scale problems. Thankfully, the solution should be fairly simple, Flesch outlines. What OpenAI really needs to do here is impose a series of strict limits on the number of URLs a user can submit through the system. Additionally, the company should likely include a system that checks for duplicate requests and limits them.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time people have found ways. Abuse generative AI like ChatGPT.. It probably won’t be the last either. However, it helps that researchers like Flesch are suggesting easy ways for OpenAI and others to solve these problems before they get out of hand. Reflecting on the work of OpenAI chat gpt operators, It’s entirely possible that the company is already working on fixing this ChatGPT security flaw.

Of course, we won’t know for sure until the company announces it. Or, perhaps it will quietly fix the problem without drawing too much attention to it. The latter is less likely, as such tech companies are very open with solutions to major problems that security researchers have identified. In the meantime, we can only hope that no one takes advantage of this flaw while it exists.



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