Bug#725445: wiki.debian.org: Sometimes blocked with 403 Forbidden, using Tor

[intrigeri@debian.org]

Package: wiki.debian.org
Severity: normal
X-Debbugs-Cc: weasel@debian.org

Hi there,

first of all, many thanks for maintaining wiki.d.o. This is an
important service for our community, and your work is very
much appreciated.

Now, at least since 2 weeks (as far as can remember I've noticed),
from time to time I am experiencing this pattern:

  1. I'm browsing wiki.d.o, all right, so far, so good.

  2. I click on an internal wiki link, or open a new wiki page in
     a new page independently, and then:
       * Title: 403 Forbidden
       * Body: "Forbidden
         You are not allowed to access this!"
     And same for every page on the Debian wiki.

  3. A few minutes later, I can reload the page and it works fine.

In case it matters (and I suspect it does), I'm using the Tor
anonymizing network (https://www.torproject.org/). This means my
apparent client IP address is one of a Tor exit node, and is
potentially shared with a number of other clients.

Every few minutes, Tor switches circuits, so my apparent IP changes,
which might explain the third (and successful) step described above.

The Debian wiki isn't blocking Tor entirely, else I could not access
it at all (and this bug report would have severity>>normal). But some
websites implement per-IP rate limiting or other clever anti-DoS
server-side tricks, that result in a similar user experience, for Tor
users, to the one I've described above. Maybe that's the case on
wiki.d.o?

I'm Cc'ing weasel, who both maintains Tor in Debian *and* could be
knowledgeable about how debian.org hosts are configured :)

Cheers,
--
  intrigeri
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