tarpit

tar +‎ pit

tarpit (plural tarpits)

1. A lake of asphalt formed when subterranean bitumen leaks to the ground surface. Such pits are important in forming fossil fuel reserves; they are also apt to trap passing animals, which become fossilized in the tar.
2. (computing) A service that purposely delays incoming connections in order to reduce the effectiveness of spamming and similar techniques.

• Turing tarpit

• tar baby (another term related to tar and to trapping or bogging down)

tarpit (third-person singular simple present tarpits, present participle tarpitting, simple past and past participle tarpitted)

1. (transitive, computing) To delay by means of a tarpit service.
   • 2004, Steven Andres, Brian Kenyon, Erik Pack Birkholz, Security Sage's Guide to Hardening the Network Infrastructure, page 415:

     If an attack matches a certain pattern, the connection can be tarpitted.

• rat pit