Web Archive - Advanced Techniques for Data Retrieval and Analysis

1. Bypassing Rate Limits & Scaling to Petabytes

Wayback Machine enforces strict rate limits on API access. If you send too many requests from a single IP, your access will slow down significantly or get temporarily blocked. Most people accept this as a limitation, but there are ways to bypass these limits and scale your scraping efforts massively.

1.1. Understanding Wayback's Rate Limiting System

Wayback limits API requests based on:
✅ IP Address → Each IP is limited to ~1 request/sec.
✅ CDX API Usage → The default API slows down after multiple consecutive requests.
✅ Session-Based Blocking → If you're logged in and making too many requests, your session might get flagged.

💡 Key Insight: Wayback divides archives into shards (clusters), meaning data is stored across multiple servers. Instead of hitting the same endpoint repeatedly, we can distribute our requests across different shards to massively increase speed.

1.2. The Nuclear Approach: Parallel CDX Scraping

Instead of querying the main CDX API endpoint directly, we can request specific shards (clusters) in parallel. This avoids the single-IP rate limit.

CDX API Query Structure

A basic Wayback Machine CDX query looks like this:

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&output=json"

This returns a list of all archived versions of a site. However, it’s slow because it queries all servers at once, triggering rate limits.

Solution: Query Shards Individually

Wayback divides its stored snapshots across 50+ internal data shards. If you query them individually, you can scrape at 50x the normal speed.

for i in {0..49}; do
  curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&cluster=$i&output=json" > shard_$i.json &
done

Each cluster responds separately, removing the bottleneck. Once all shards are fetched, merge them:

jq -s 'add' shard_*.json > full_dataset.json

This method massively speeds up scraping, often completing in minutes instead of hours.

1.3. Proxy Rotation: Unlimited Requests from Different IPs

Since Wayback rate-limits each IP, we can bypass this with proxy rotation.

Method 1: Using Tor for Anonymous Requests

1️⃣ Start Tor (if you haven’t already installed it, do so with sudo apt install tor).
2️⃣ Run Tor Proxy in the Background

tor &

3️⃣ Use Tor with cURL to Rotate IPs

curl --proxy socks5h://127.0.0.1:9050 "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com"

4️⃣ Automate Proxy Rotation Between Requests

for i in {1..100}; do
  curl --proxy socks5h://127.0.0.1:9050 "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&offset=$i" > "data_$i.json"
  killall -HUP tor  # Forces Tor to change IP
done

Now, each request comes from a new IP, effectively bypassing rate limits.

Method 2: Using Residential Proxies (Faster but Paid)

If Tor is too slow, use residential proxies. These are IPs from real users (not datacenters), making them undetectable. Services like BrightData, Oxylabs, and Smartproxy allow automatic rotation.

Example using a rotating proxy:

curl --proxy http://user:pass@proxy.provider.com:8080 "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com"

By switching IPs every request, you can scrape millions of pages without detection.

1.4. Distributed Scraping with Multiple Machines

For even higher speeds, distribute scraping across multiple cloud servers or Raspberry Pi devices.

Step 1: Set Up Scraper Nodes

Use AWS, DigitalOcean, Linode, or a home server farm to create multiple scraper nodes.

Step 2: Run Distributed CDX Queries

Instead of one machine hitting Wayback, split the work:

ssh user@server1 "curl 'https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&cluster=0-9' > data1.json" &
ssh user@server2 "curl 'https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&cluster=10-19' > data2.json" &
ssh user@server3 "curl 'https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&cluster=20-29' > data3.json" &

Each server scrapes a different range of data, reducing the workload per machine.

Step 3: Merge Data

Once all servers finish, fetch results and combine:

scp user@server1:data1.json .
scp user@server2:data2.json .
scp user@server3:data3.json .
jq -s 'add' data1.json data2.json data3.json > final_dataset.json

Now, you’ve scraped millions of records in a fraction of the usual time.

1.5. Full-Archive Crawling with Wayback Machine Downloader

Sometimes, you don’t just want metadata (CDX) but actual site content. Use wayback_machine_downloader:

wayback_machine_downloader --url example.com --all --concurrency 100

This downloads every snapshot of a site, storing full HTML, images, and scripts.

To avoid bans:

Use --random-wait to introduce delays.
Use --user-agent "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)" to avoid bot blocking.

Final Thoughts

Most users accept Wayback’s limits, scraping at 1 request per second. That’s fine for small jobs.

But if you need to crawl millions of pages, you need:
✅ Sharded CDX Queries (50x faster)
✅ Proxy Rotation (Unlimited requests)
✅ Multiple Scraping Machines (Even more speed)
✅ Full Archive Crawling (For complete site reconstruction)

With these techniques, Wayback’s limits are no longer a problem.

👉 Up Next: How to Use Hidden CDX API Parameters for Advanced Data Extraction

2. Exploiting Hidden CDX API Parameters for Advanced Data Extraction

The Wayback Machine CDX API is publicly documented, but there are hidden parameters that let you extract data faster, more efficiently, and with greater precision. These are not well-documented, but power users and researchers rely on them to dig deep.

2.1. CDX API Basics: The Foundation

The CDX API provides a structured way to search Wayback Machine’s archives. Here’s a basic request:

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&output=json"

It returns a list of archived snapshots for example.com.

Common Fields in CDX Responses

By default, CDX returns fields like:

[
  ["urlkey", "timestamp", "original", "mimetype", "statuscode", "digest", "length"],
  ["com,example)/", "20230101000000", "http://example.com/", "text/html", "200", "HASH123", "12345"],
  ["com,example)/page1", "20230102000000", "http://example.com/page1", "text/html", "404", "HASH456", "0"]
]

These tell us:

urlkey: A reverse-ordered domain key (for efficient searching).
timestamp: Date of capture (YYYYMMDDHHMMSS).
original: The archived URL.
mimetype: The file type (text/html, image/png, etc.).
statuscode: HTTP response (200 = OK, 404 = Not Found).
digest: A hash of the page’s content (used for deduplication).
length: Page size in bytes.

But this basic query is inefficient—we need advanced filters for precision.

2.2. Undocumented CDX Parameters

Wayback’s internal tools use advanced parameters not found in public docs. These let us:
✅ Filter by content uniqueness
✅ Extract specific MIME types
✅ Perform regex-based URL searches
✅ Track duplicate content across sites

Hidden Parameter 1: `showDupeCount=true`

Reveals how many times a page's exact content appears across different domains. This is gold for plagiarism detection, SEO audits, and cybersecurity investigations.

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=*&showDupeCount=true&collapse=digest&fl=urlkey,digest,dupecount"

💡 Example Output:

org,wikipedia)/wiki/Example ABC123 1420  
com,news)/article123 ABC123 1420

Here, the digest (ABC123) appears 1,420 times—meaning 1,420 pages have identical content. This is a powerful way to detect content theft or mirrored sites.

Hidden Parameter 2: `matchType=host` + `filter=~surt` (Regex Matching on Domains & Paths)

By default, Wayback searches exact domains. But you can use regex to find patterns.

Example 1: Extract All Subdomains

Find every subdomain archived for example.com:

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=*.example.com/*&matchType=host"

This returns:

www.example.com  
blog.example.com  
admin.example.com  
api.example.com

Now, we can target specific subdomains for deeper analysis.

Example 2: Find Only Admin URLs

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=*.example.com/*&filter=~surt:.*/admin/"

This finds any archived admin panel, such as:

example.com/admin  
blog.example.com/wp-admin  
store.example.com/admin-login

Useful for penetration testing and historical security audits.

Hidden Parameter 3: `collapse=statuscode` (Track Deleted Pages Over Time)

Sometimes, you want to see when a page disappeared (e.g., was deleted or censored).

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com/deleted-page&collapse=statuscode"

💡 Example Output:

20220101000000 200  
20220102000000 200  
20220103000000 404  <-- Page deleted

This reveals the exact date a page was removed from the web.

**Hidden Parameter 4: `filter=mimetype:image/*` (Extract Only Images, PDFs, CSS, JS, etc.)**

Need to download just images or PDFs?

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com/*&filter=mimetype:image/*"

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com/*&filter=mimetype:application/pdf"

This extracts only relevant files—saving time & bandwidth.

2.3. Combining Hidden Parameters for Extreme Precision

Let’s say we want to:

Find all subdomains of example.com
Get only admin-related pages
Extract only HTML pages (no images, CSS, or JS)
Remove duplicates
Show how often each page was archived

We can combine everything:

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=*.example.com/*&matchType=host&filter=~surt:.*/admin/&filter=mimetype:text/html&collapse=digest&showDupeCount=true"

💡 Example Output:

admin.example.com/login 200 TEXT123 58  
blog.example.com/wp-admin 200 TEXT456 12  
store.example.com/admin-dashboard 200 TEXT789 20

This tells us:

TEXT123, TEXT456, etc., are unique pages.
The login page was archived 58 times (useful for tracking changes).

2.4. Automating CDX Queries for Large-Scale Data Extraction

If you need to download thousands of results, pagination is essential.

Pagination with `limit` and `offset`

Wayback limits results per request. Use limit and offset to iterate:

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&limit=1000&offset=0" > page1.json
curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&limit=1000&offset=1000" > page2.json

💡 Automate It with Bash

for i in {0..10000..1000}; do
  curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&limit=1000&offset=$i" > "data_$i.json"
done

This automates pagination, saving you time.

2.5. Live URL Monitoring with Wayback Notifications

Want to track changes in real-time? Use Wayback Change Detection.

1️⃣ Subscribe to a Page

curl -X POST "https://web.archive.org/__wb/sparkline?url=example.com/page"

This alerts you when a page is updated.

2️⃣ Automate Monitoring with Cron Jobs
Run every hour:

crontab -e
0 * * * * curl -X POST "https://web.archive.org/__wb/sparkline?url=example.com/page"

Now, you’ll know instantly when a page changes.

Final Thoughts

The basic CDX API is useful—but Wayback's hidden parameters give unmatched precision:
✅ Track deleted/censored pages
✅ Extract only specific file types
✅ Find duplicate content across the web
✅ Perform regex-based searches
✅ Automate large-scale scraping

With these techniques, you can turn Wayback Machine into a real-time intelligence tool.

👉 Up Next: How to Archive & Extract JavaScript-Heavy Sites with Puppeteer

3. Stealth Archival of Dynamic Content Using Puppeteer

The Wayback Machine struggles with JavaScript-heavy websites like SPAs (Single Page Applications) or AJAX-driven pages. Many modern websites load only a bare HTML shell, with content appearing dynamically via JavaScript. This means Wayback’s crawlers often miss crucial data.

To bypass this, we can stealthily archive and extract full JavaScript-rendered pages using Puppeteer, a headless Chrome automation tool.

3.1. Why Traditional Archiving Fails on JavaScript-Heavy Sites

❌ Problem 1: HTML Snapshots Capture Only the Shell

Most archives save only initial HTML, missing dynamically loaded content.
Example:

Archive captures just the skeleton (no product details, no user-generated comments).
Clicking on buttons or links does nothing in the archived version.

❌ Problem 2: Infinite Scrolling Pages Are Tricky

Sites like Twitter, Instagram, or news feeds load more content as you scroll.

Archive saves only what’s visible at capture time.

❌ Problem 3: Login-Gated Content is Unreachable

Sites like LinkedIn or Medium hide content behind logins.
Wayback Machine can’t authenticate, so it saves empty pages.

✅ Solution: Puppeteer for JavaScript Rendering

Puppeteer renders pages just like a real browser.
It waits for JavaScript execution, clicks, scrolls, and captures fully loaded pages.
It can log in, intercept network requests, and preserve AJAX data.

3.2. Setting Up Puppeteer for Archival

Step 1: Install Puppeteer

npm install puppeteer

yarn add puppeteer

This downloads headless Chromium for automated browsing.

Step 2: Capture Fully Rendered Page

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://example.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });

  const content = await page.content();  // Get fully rendered HTML

  console.log(content);  // Save or process it

  await browser.close();
})();

🔹 This script loads the page completely, waits for JavaScript to execute, and extracts the final HTML.

3.3. Stealth Mode: Avoiding Bot Detection

Many websites detect bots and block them. To stay under the radar:

Step 1: Use Stealth Plugins

npm install puppeteer-extra puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth

Then modify the script:

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({ headless: true });
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://example.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });

  const content = await page.content();
  console.log(content);

  await browser.close();
})();

🔹 This makes Puppeteer behave more like a real user, avoiding bot detection.

Step 2: Rotate User Agents

await page.setUserAgent('Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/110.0.0.0 Safari/537.36');

🔹 Some websites block headless Chrome—changing the user agent makes Puppeteer look like a real browser.

Step 3: Fake Browser Fingerprints

await page.evaluateOnNewDocument(() => {
  Object.defineProperty(navigator, 'webdriver', { get: () => false });
});

🔹 This removes the "webdriver" property, a common way sites detect automation.

3.4. Capturing Infinite Scroll Pages (Twitter, Instagram, News Sites)

For pages that load more content when scrolling, use this:

async function autoScroll(page) {
  await page.evaluate(async () => {
    await new Promise((resolve) => {
      let totalHeight = 0;
      let distance = 100;
      let timer = setInterval(() => {
        let scrollHeight = document.body.scrollHeight;
        window.scrollBy(0, distance);
        totalHeight += distance;

        if (totalHeight >= scrollHeight) {
          clearInterval(timer);
          resolve();
        }
      }, 500);
    });
  });
}

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  
  await page.goto('https://twitter.com/someuser', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });

  await autoScroll(page);  // Scroll to load all content

  const content = await page.content();
  console.log(content);

  await browser.close();
})();

🔹 This keeps scrolling until the page is fully loaded, ensuring everything is archived.

3.5. Bypassing Login-Walls for Full Archival

Some pages block content behind logins. Puppeteer can log in, then archive the page.

Step 1: Automate Login

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://example.com/login');

  await page.type('#username', 'your_username');
  await page.type('#password', 'your_password');
  await page.click('#login-button');

  await page.waitForNavigation();
  console.log('Logged in');

  await page.goto('https://example.com/protected-page', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });

  const content = await page.content();
  console.log(content);

  await browser.close();
})();

🔹 This logs in, navigates to the protected page, and captures its full HTML.

Step 2: Save Cookies for Persistent Sessions

const fs = require('fs');

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://example.com/login');
  await page.type('#username', 'your_username');
  await page.type('#password', 'your_password');
  await page.click('#login-button');
  await page.waitForNavigation();

  const cookies = await page.cookies();
  fs.writeFileSync('cookies.json', JSON.stringify(cookies));

  console.log('Cookies saved');
  await browser.close();
})();

🔹 This saves cookies, so you don’t have to log in every time.

To reuse:

const cookies = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('cookies.json'));
await page.setCookie(...cookies);

🔹 This restores login without needing a password.

3.6. Automating Archival & Uploading to Wayback Machine

Step 1: Generate a Screenshot & PDF for Extra Backup

await page.screenshot({ path: 'archive.png', fullPage: true });
await page.pdf({ path: 'archive.pdf', format: 'A4' });

🔹 This preserves visual copies in case the HTML changes later.

Step 2: Upload to Wayback Machine

const axios = require('axios');
await axios.get(`https://web.archive.org/save/${page.url()}`);

🔹 This sends the page to Wayback Machine for permanent archiving.

3.7. Summary

Puppeteer fixes Wayback’s biggest weaknesses:
✅ Captures JavaScript-heavy pages
✅ Extracts fully rendered HTML
✅ Scrolls through infinite pages
✅ Logs into protected content
✅ Avoids bot detection
✅ Automates archiving & uploads

With this, you can stealthily extract and archive anything, even content that Wayback Machine misses.

👉 Up Next: Using CDX API to Find Deleted Content from Major News Sites

4. Recovering Censored News Articles Using the CDX API

News websites sometimes delete or modify articles due to legal pressure, government requests, or internal policy changes. When this happens, the original content vanishes, making it difficult to track what was removed or altered.

Luckily, Wayback Machine’s CDX API allows us to retrieve past versions of deleted news articles, even if they are no longer publicly available.

4.1. Why News Articles Disappear

❌ Reason 1: Government Takedowns

Some countries force news websites to remove politically sensitive content.
Example: The Indian government’s IT Rules 2021 allow it to demand news takedowns.

❌ Reason 2: Corporate Influence

Large companies pressure media houses to remove negative reports.
Example: A news site publishes a scandal about a tech company, then silently deletes it after receiving legal threats.

❌ Reason 3: Internal Policy Changes

Websites revise articles to reflect new narratives or remove errors, but in some cases, the original facts disappear.
Example: A journalist reports on a company’s data breach, but later, the article is rewritten without mentioning the breach.

❌ Reason 4: Paywalls & Subscription Models

Some news sites archive old articles behind paywalls, making them inaccessible to free users.
Example: A news article is free today, but after a month, it’s locked behind a premium subscription.

4.2. Using the CDX API to Retrieve Deleted Articles

The CDX API (Capture Index) of the Wayback Machine lets us fetch all historical versions of a URL.

Step 1: Query All Archived Versions

curl "http://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com/news-article&output=json"

🔹 This returns a list of timestamps when the article was archived.

Step 2: Fetch a Specific Version

To access an archived copy, use:

https://web.archive.org/web/[timestamp]/example.com/news-article

Example:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230101000000/https://example.com/news-article

🔹 This loads the article’s snapshot from January 1, 2023.

4.3. Automating Deleted Article Recovery with Python

For large-scale retrieval, we can automate this process using Python.

Step 1: Install Dependencies

pip install requests

Step 2: Fetch All Archived Versions

import requests

url = "https://example.com/news-article"
cdx_api = f"http://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url={url}&output=json"

response = requests.get(cdx_api)
if response.status_code == 200:
    data = response.json()
    for entry in data[1:]:  # Skip the header row
        timestamp = entry[1]
        archive_url = f"https://web.archive.org/web/{timestamp}/{url}"
        print(archive_url)

🔹 This script lists all historical versions of an article.

Step 3: Download the Original Content

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

archive_url = "https://web.archive.org/web/20230101000000/https://example.com/news-article"

response = requests.get(archive_url)
if response.status_code == 200:
    soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')
    article_text = soup.get_text()
    print(article_text)  # Save or process the content

🔹 This extracts the original text of the deleted article.

4.4. Tracking Censorship in News

Wayback Machine’s archives allow us to detect when news articles are modified or removed.

Step 1: Find the Differences Between Versions

We can compare two archived versions of the same article using diff tools:

diff <(curl -s https://web.archive.org/web/20230101/https://example.com/news-article) \
     <(curl -s https://web.archive.org/web/20230401/https://example.com/news-article)

🔹 This highlights what changed in the article between January and April.

Step 2: Automate Content Comparison in Python

import difflib

def get_article_text(archive_url):
    response = requests.get(archive_url)
    soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')
    return soup.get_text()

old_version = get_article_text("https://web.archive.org/web/20230101/https://example.com/news-article")
new_version = get_article_text("https://web.archive.org/web/20230401/https://example.com/news-article")

diff = difflib.unified_diff(old_version.splitlines(), new_version.splitlines())

for line in diff:
    print(line)

🔹 This script highlights words and sentences that were changed or removed.

4.5. Finding Deleted News Even Without a Direct URL

Sometimes, we don’t have the exact URL of a deleted article. We can search for it in Wayback’s global index using Google.

Method 1: Google Dorking to Find Archived Pages

site:web.archive.org "article title"

🔹 This searches for archived versions of the article.

Example:

site:web.archive.org "XYZ Corporation Data Breach"

🔹 If a news site deleted the original, this may still find its archived version.

Method 2: Searching by Domain

site:web.archive.org site:example.com

🔹 This lists all archived pages from a specific news website.

4.6. Recovering Deleted News from Google Cache

If an article was removed recently, it might still be in Google’s cache.

Step 1: Check Google’s Cached Version

cache:https://example.com/news-article

🔹 This opens the last saved copy of the page.

Step 2: Retrieve Cached Content via URL

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://example.com/news-article

🔹 This works even if the article is no longer live.

4.7. Real-World Example: Recovering Censored Reports

Example 1: The Indian COVID-19 Report Takedown

A news site published a report criticizing government COVID policies.
The article vanished overnight after legal threats.
Using the CDX API, journalists retrieved the original version and republished it.

Example 2: The Chinese Tech Censorship Case

A financial site reported on a major fraud in a Chinese company.
Within days, the article was scrubbed from all search engines.
Wayback Machine’s archives helped uncover what was deleted.

4.8. Summary

The CDX API and web archives are powerful tools for tracking censorship and recovering lost information.

✅ Find all archived versions of a deleted news article
✅ Compare different versions to detect edits or censorship
✅ Extract full text of removed articles
✅ Recover deleted news even without the exact URL
✅ Use Google Cache for recently deleted content

With these techniques, you can fight censorship and preserve history—even when websites try to erase it.

👉 Up Next: Detecting Hidden Manipulation in Website Archives

5. Tracking Hidden Edits in Website Archives

Websites silently edit or rewrite content to change narratives, cover mistakes, or remove controversial information. These changes often go unnoticed because there’s no public record unless someone actively tracks them.

The Wayback Machine and CDX API let us detect these hidden edits by comparing different versions of a webpage. This helps in tracking corporate PR moves, government censorship, and historical revisionism.

5.1. Why Websites Secretly Edit Content

❌ Reason 1: Corporate Reputation Management

Companies revise statements to downplay scandals.
Example: A company initially admits a data breach, but later removes all mentions of leaked customer data.

❌ Reason 2: Political Manipulation

Governments erase or alter online records to control public perception.
Example: A politician's website removes a controversial policy stance before elections.

❌ Reason 3: Legal & Defamation Risks

News sites quietly reword articles after receiving legal threats.
Example: A news site reports on a celebrity’s tax fraud allegations, then later softens the language without any notice.

❌ Reason 4: Social Media Cleanup

Public figures edit old blog posts or tweets to avoid backlash.
Example: A brand deletes an insensitive statement, pretending it never happened.

5.2. Detecting Website Edits Using the CDX API

Wayback Machine saves multiple snapshots of a page over time. We can retrieve these snapshots and compare them.

Step 1: Get All Archived Versions of a Page

curl "http://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com/article&output=json"

🔹 This returns a list of timestamps when the page was archived.

Step 2: Fetch Two Versions for Comparison

https://web.archive.org/web/20230101/https://example.com/article
https://web.archive.org/web/20230401/https://example.com/article

🔹 These URLs load how the page looked on different dates.

Step 3: Find the Differences Using a Diff Tool

Use a command-line diff tool to compare the HTML content:

diff <(curl -s https://web.archive.org/web/20230101/https://example.com/article) \
     <(curl -s https://web.archive.org/web/20230401/https://example.com/article)

🔹 This highlights added, removed, or modified text.

5.3. Automating Edit Detection with Python

For large-scale tracking, we can automate this process.

Step 1: Install Dependencies

pip install requests beautifulsoup4 difflib

Step 2: Fetch Two Archived Versions of a Page

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

def get_article_text(archive_url):
    response = requests.get(archive_url)
    soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')
    return soup.get_text()

old_version = get_article_text("https://web.archive.org/web/20230101/https://example.com/article")
new_version = get_article_text("https://web.archive.org/web/20230401/https://example.com/article")

🔹 This extracts only the readable text from both versions.

Step 3: Compare the Two Versions

import difflib

diff = difflib.unified_diff(old_version.splitlines(), new_version.splitlines())

for line in diff:
    print(line)

🔹 This highlights what was added, removed, or changed.

5.4. Real-World Examples of Hidden Edits

Example 1: Wikipedia’s Silent Revisions

Wikipedia pages of politicians are edited before elections to remove negative details.
Example: The page of a politician deleted a corruption scandal from 2015.

Example 2: News Websites Editing Articles After Publication

A news outlet reports that a billionaire evaded taxes.
24 hours later, the article is edited to remove details about offshore accounts.

Example 3: Government Websites Changing Official Statements

A government site initially admits inflation is rising.
A month later, the wording is changed to "temporary price fluctuations."

5.5. Monitoring Ongoing Changes to Websites

If you want to track changes in real time, use a webpage monitoring tool.

Method 1: Using `changedetection.io`

Self-hosted tool to track website changes
Can send alerts when a page is edited
Installation:

docker run -d -p 5000:5000 --name changedetection -v /data changedetection.io

🔹 This sets up a live monitoring system for any website.

Method 2: Using Google Alerts for Sudden Content Changes

site:example.com "specific phrase"

🔹 If a page’s wording changes, Google may still cache the old version.

5.6. Preventing Edits from Going Unnoticed

✅ Take screenshots of important pages before they change.
✅ Use archive services like Wayback Machine to save copies.
✅ Compare past and current versions of a webpage for hidden edits.
✅ Set up alerts for critical pages you want to track.

Even if websites try to rewrite history, these tools help uncover the truth.

👉 Up Next: Bypassing Paywalls to Access Archived Content

6. Bypassing Paywalls to Access Archived Content

Paywalls block access to news articles, research papers, and other content unless you subscribe or pay. However, many of these pages are publicly available in web archives like the Wayback Machine. This means you can often bypass paywalls by retrieving an archived version.

This guide explains how paywalls work, why archives can bypass them, and multiple advanced methods to access paywalled content legally using web archives and other techniques.

6.1. How Paywalls Work

Paywalls generally work in one of three ways:

1️⃣ Soft Paywalls (JavaScript-Based)

The full article loads initially, but JavaScript hides it behind a pop-up.
Example: New York Times, The Hindu, Washington Post.

2️⃣ Metered Paywalls (Cookie-Based)

You get 3-5 free articles per month, tracked using cookies.
Example: Bloomberg, Business Insider, The Economist.

3️⃣ Hard Paywalls (Server-Side Restrictions)

The content never loads unless you’re logged in as a paid user.
Example: The Information, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review.

6.2. Why Wayback Machine Bypasses Paywalls

Search Engines Get Free Access
- Many news sites allow Google to index full articles so they rank in search results.
- Web.archive.org often saves these full versions before the paywall appears.
Archives Store Public Versions
- If a page was once publicly accessible, Wayback likely saved a copy.
JavaScript Paywalls Are Client-Side
- Web archives save raw HTML before JavaScript hides the article.
- The archived version is often fully readable.

6.3. Quick Methods to Access Paywalled Content

🟢 Method 1: Direct Archive Lookup

If a paywalled article is indexed, you can retrieve an archived copy.

🔹 Step 1: Check the Wayback Machine

Simply paste the URL into:

https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://example.com/article

🔹 If an archived version exists, it bypasses the paywall.

🔹 Step 2: Use Google Cache (Alternative)

If the article is indexed by Google, check:

cache:https://example.com/article

🔹 This opens Google’s last cached copy, which might be paywall-free.

🟢 Method 2: CDX API Lookup for Hidden Snapshots

If Wayback doesn’t show an archived copy in its UI, use the CDX API to find hidden snapshots.

curl "http://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com/article&output=json"

🔹 This returns a list of archived versions.

Use the oldest version (before the paywall was added).

Example:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220101/https://example.com/article

🟢 Method 3: Bypass JavaScript Paywalls via No-JS Mode

Some paywalls rely on JavaScript to hide content.

🔹 Step 1: Disable JavaScript in Your Browser

Open Developer Tools (F12) → Settings
Turn off JavaScript
Reload the page

🔹 Some sites will show the full content since the paywall script doesn’t run.

🔹 Step 2: Use `curl` to Fetch Raw HTML

curl -L https://example.com/article

🔹 This retrieves HTML before JavaScript loads the paywall.

🟢 Method 4: Spoof Google’s Crawler (Googlebot)

Some sites allow Googlebot full access but block normal users.

🔹 Step 1: Open DevTools → Network → User-Agent Switcher

Set your browser's User-Agent to:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

🔹 Now, the site thinks you’re Google and shows the full article.

🔹 Step 2: Use `curl` to Spoof Googlebot

curl -A "Googlebot" https://example.com/article

🔹 Some sites will serve the full content.

🟢 Method 5: Use Browser Extensions for Auto-Bypass

Several open-source extensions help bypass paywalls automatically:

Bypass Paywalls Clean (GitHub)
- Works for major news sites
- Blocks JavaScript & cookies
- URL: https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome
Archive.is Button
- Instantly loads archived versions
- URL: https://archive.is/

6.4. Advanced Automation: Scraping Paywalled Content via Archive APIs

If you need to automate paywall bypassing, use Python + Wayback API.

🔹 Step 1: Install Dependencies

pip install requests beautifulsoup4

🔹 Step 2: Fetch the Latest Archived Article

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

def get_latest_archive(url):
    wayback_url = f"http://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url={url}&output=json"
    response = requests.get(wayback_url)
    
    archives = response.json()
    if len(archives) > 1:
        latest_snapshot = archives[-1][1]
        return f"https://web.archive.org/web/{latest_snapshot}/{url}"
    return None

article_url = "https://example.com/paywalled-article"
archive_link = get_latest_archive(article_url)

if archive_link:
    print(f"Access full article: {archive_link}")

🔹 This script finds the most recent archived version and prints the direct link.

6.5. Special Cases: Research Papers & Scientific Journals

Academic paywalls (JSTOR, Elsevier, IEEE) are tougher to bypass.

🔹 Step 1: Use Sci-Hub for Academic Papers

If a research paper is paywalled, Sci-Hub may have it.

https://sci-hub.se/10.1234/example.paper

🔹 Replace 10.1234/example.paper with the DOI of the paper.

🔹 Step 2: Use Library Genesis for Books

If you need textbooks behind a paywall, Library Genesis is an option.

https://libgen.rs/

🔹 Search for the book title and download.

6.6. Preventing Future Paywall Restrictions

✅ Archive important pages early using:

https://web.archive.org/save/https://example.com/article

✅ Use RSS feeds of paywalled sites to get full content before they block access.
✅ Subscribe to newsletters—many paywalled articles are emailed for free.
✅ Use Google Alerts to track when a paywalled article is freely accessible.

Final Thoughts

These methods help access archived paywalled content legally, but support quality journalism by subscribing if you rely on their work regularly.

📖 Next: Federated Web Archives – Combining Multiple Archive Services

7. Federated Web Archives – Combining Multiple Archive Services

Most people rely on a single archive service, like the Wayback Machine, to retrieve old or deleted web pages. But this isn't always enough. Some pages aren't saved, some get removed, and some archives fail to capture dynamic content.

This is where federated web archives come in. Instead of depending on a single source, federated archives combine multiple archiving services, improving success rates.

This section covers:
✅ Why relying on one archive isn't enough
✅ Different web archives and their strengths
✅ How to search multiple archives at once
✅ Advanced methods to automate federated searching

7.1. Why One Archive Isn't Enough

Most people use Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) to find old pages. But it's not perfect. Here’s why:

1️⃣ Some sites block Wayback Machine

Websites can opt-out, preventing Wayback from archiving them.
Example: Instagram, LinkedIn, some news sites.

2️⃣ Wayback often deletes pages

If a website requests removal, Wayback may delete snapshots.
Example: Reddit removed archives of private subreddits.

3️⃣ Not every page is captured

If a page wasn't visited enough, Wayback may never have saved it.

4️⃣ Wayback struggles with dynamic content

JavaScript-heavy pages (Twitter, Facebook) may not load correctly.

To avoid these problems, use multiple archives.

7.2. Best Web Archives & Their Strengths

🔹 1. Wayback Machine (web.archive.org)

Most popular & largest archive
Stores HTML, images, and media
Best for older content

🔹 2. Archive.is (archive.today)

Captures static pages only (no JavaScript)
Good for Twitter screenshots, news articles
Can bypass paywalls better than Wayback

🔹 3. Google Cache

Temporarily stores recent versions
Quickest way to check recently deleted pages
Use: cache:https://example.com in Google

🔹 4. Memento Project (timetravel.mementoweb.org)

Federated search across multiple archives
Searches Wayback, Archive.is, Perma.cc, and others

🔹 5. Perma.cc

Used by academics and legal professionals
Permanent archive (no removal requests allowed)
Good for court cases, legal citations

🔹 6. WebCite (webcitation.org)

Used by scientific journals to cite web pages
Best for academic research

🔹 7. GitHub & Pastebin Archives

If a page was code-related, it might be in GitHub Gist or Pastebin
Use: site:pastebin.com "keyword" in Google

7.3. Searching Multiple Archives at Once

Instead of checking each archive manually, use federated search tools.

🔹 Method 1: Memento Time Travel (Best for Broad Searches)

URL: https://timetravel.mementoweb.org/
Searches multiple archives at once
Covers Wayback, Archive.is, Perma.cc, and more

🔹 Example Search:

https://timetravel.mementoweb.org/memento/20230101/https://example.com

This finds the oldest available archive from any service.

🔹 Method 2: OldWeb.today (Best for Browsing Old Sites)

URL: https://oldweb.today/
Lets you browse archived pages in old browsers (Netscape, IE6, etc.)
Useful for seeing websites as they originally looked

🔹 Method 3: Google Dorking to Find Archived Pages

If direct archive searches fail, Google Dorks can help.

🔹 Find archived versions of a page

site:web.archive.org "example.com"
site:archive.is "example.com"

🔹 This searches for all archived snapshots of a site.

🔹 Find deleted Pastebin or GitHub pages

site:pastebin.com "deleted content"
site:github.com "removed repository"

7.4. Automating Federated Archive Searches

If you need to regularly check multiple archives, automation helps.

🔹 Python Script: Search Multiple Archives

This script:
✅ Checks Wayback Machine
✅ Checks Archive.is
✅ Returns the earliest archived version

import requests

def check_wayback(url):
    wayback_api = f"http://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url={url}&output=json"
    response = requests.get(wayback_api)
    
    if response.status_code == 200:
        archives = response.json()
        if len(archives) > 1:
            snapshot = archives[1][1]
            return f"https://web.archive.org/web/{snapshot}/{url}"
    return None

def check_archive_is(url):
    archive_url = f"https://archive.is/{url}"
    return archive_url

site = "https://example.com"
print(f"Wayback: {check_wayback(site)}")
print(f"Archive.is: {check_archive_is(site)}")

🔹 This script automates federated searching for a given website.

7.5. Archiving Pages Yourself to Prevent Future Loss

If you want to preserve a page before it disappears, manually archive it.

🔹 Method 1: Save to Wayback Machine

Use this to manually archive any page:

https://web.archive.org/save/https://example.com

🔹 This ensures Wayback captures the page.

🔹 Method 2: Save to Archive.is

Manually save pages on:

https://archive.is/

🔹 Method 3: Automate Archiving with Python

If you want to automate archiving, use this script:

import requests

def save_wayback(url):
    save_url = f"https://web.archive.org/save/{url}"
    response = requests.get(save_url)
    return response.status_code

site = "https://example.com"
print(f"Saving to Wayback: {save_wayback(site)}")

🔹 This script automatically saves any page to Wayback.

7.6. Special Cases: Archiving Social Media & Dynamic Content

🔹 Twitter/X: Use Nitter.net (a lightweight Twitter frontend)
🔹 Reddit: Use Reveddit.com (retrieves deleted Reddit threads)
🔹 YouTube: Use ytdl to archive videos before they’re removed
🔹 Instagram: Use imginn.com to access archived Instagram profiles

Final Thoughts

Relying on one archive is risky. Federated web archives combine multiple sources to maximize success.

📖 Next: 8. Advanced OSINT Techniques Using Archived Data

8. Advanced OSINT Techniques Using Archived Data

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is about gathering publicly available data for investigations. The Wayback Machine and other web archives are powerful tools for this. They help recover deleted content, track infrastructure changes, and find hidden connections.

This section covers:
✅ How to recover deleted content
✅ Tracking website & infrastructure changes
✅ Finding hidden connections using old data
✅ Using archived SSL certificates to uncover domains
✅ Mining old databases for exposed credentials

8.1. Recovering Deleted Web Pages

Many websites delete pages to erase history. But archived versions often still exist.

🔹 Method 1: Find Old Versions of a Page

Use Wayback Machine to retrieve deleted pages:

https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://example.com/deleted-page

🔹 The * wildcard shows all saved versions.

🔹 Method 2: Find URLs That Are No Longer Linked

Sometimes, deleted pages are still in the archive, but you don’t know their exact URLs.

Use Wayback CDX API to list all historical URLs for a domain:

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&output=json&fl=original"

🔹 This gives you a list of all URLs ever archived for the site.

If a website deleted an article, you can check if it still exists in Wayback.

8.2. Tracking Website & Infrastructure Changes

When a company changes its website, removes information, or migrates servers, it leaves digital traces.

🔹 Track Website Design Changes

Web archives store past HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can compare snapshots to see what changed.

Use diff to compare two archived versions:

diff <(curl -s "https://web.archive.org/web/20220101/http://example.com") <(curl -s "https://web.archive.org/web/20230101/http://example.com")

🔹 This highlights what content was added or removed.

🔹 Monitor Deleted Employee Pages

Companies often remove staff profiles when employees leave. But old versions might still be online.

Example search:

https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://example.com/team
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://example.com/about

🔹 This helps find former employees, useful for investigations.

8.3. Finding Hidden Connections Between Websites

Websites sometimes share infrastructure, even when they seem unrelated.

🔹 Find Subdomains That No Longer Exist

A company might shut down an old subdomain (old.example.com), but its records still exist in archives.

Use Wayback to find all subdomains:

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=*.example.com&output=json&fl=original"

🔹 This lists all subdomains Wayback has ever seen.

🔹 Find Connected Websites Using Old Google Analytics IDs

Websites reuse Google Analytics tracking IDs (UA-XXXXX-Y). If two sites share the same ID, they are likely owned by the same entity.

Use this search in Wayback:

https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://example.com

Then search the page source (View Page Source) for:

UA-XXXXX-Y

🔹 Once you find the tracking ID, search Google for other sites using the same ID:

"UA-XXXXX-Y" site:*

🔹 This reveals hidden connections between websites.

8.4. Using Archived SSL Certificates to Uncover Domains

When a company buys an SSL certificate, it often covers multiple domains. Even if a site is taken down, its old SSL records still exist.

🔹 Find All SSL Certificates for a Domain

Use the Wayback CDX API to list all historical SSL certificates:

curl "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=example.com&matchType=host&filter=mimetype:text/certificate"

🔹 This lists historical SSL records.

🔹 Decode the SSL Certificate to Find More Domains

Once you get an SSL certificate, use OpenSSL to decode it:

openssl x509 -in example.crt -text -noout

Look for the Subject Alternative Names (SANs) field. It lists all domains covered by the certificate, which might include:
✅ Other company websites
✅ Subdomains that no longer exist
✅ Hidden admin portals

8.5. Mining Old Databases for Exposed Credentials

Old leaked databases often contain usernames, passwords, and emails.

🔹 Find Exposed Email Addresses Using Archive.org

Wayback archives old database dumps. To find leaked emails:

site:web.archive.org "database leak site:pastebin.com"
site:web.archive.org "usernames passwords"

🔹 This sometimes reveals old credential dumps.

🔹 Find Old Employee Emails

If a company used to have an email directory but deleted it, you can recover it.

Example:

https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://example.com/contact
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://example.com/staff

🔹 This helps find email formats (firstname.lastname@example.com).

8.6. Rebuilding Deleted Websites Using WARC Files

If a website is completely gone, you can rebuild it from archived data.

🔹 Step 1: Download All Archived Pages

Use wayback_machine_downloader to grab all historical data:

wayback_machine_downloader https://example.com --all

🔹 This downloads all archived versions.

🔹 Step 2: Rebuild the Website Locally

Use Docker to host the old version:

FROM nginx
COPY example.com_snapshots/ /usr/share/nginx/html/
EXPOSE 80

Then run:

docker build -t archived_site .
docker run -p 8080:80 archived_site

🔹 Now you can browse the dead website locally.

8.7. Automating OSINT Using Python

If you need to monitor multiple websites, automate the process.

🔹 Python Script: Monitor Deleted Web Pages

This script checks if a page has disappeared from the current web but still exists in Wayback.

import requests

def check_wayback(url):
    wayback_api = f"http://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url={url}&output=json"
    response = requests.get(wayback_api)
    
    if response.status_code == 200:
        archives = response.json()
        if len(archives) > 1:
            snapshot = archives[1][1]
            return f"https://web.archive.org/web/{snapshot}/{url}"
    return None

site = "https://example.com/deleted-page"
print(f"Archived version: {check_wayback(site)}")

🔹 This script automatically finds deleted pages in Wayback.

Final Thoughts

Archived data is one of the most powerful OSINT tools. It helps:
✅ Recover deleted content
✅ Find hidden connections between sites
✅ Track company infrastructure changes
✅ Discover exposed credentials & emails

Using Wayback Machine, SSL records, and database leaks, you can uncover critical intelligence.

Web Archive - Advanced Techniques for Data Retrieval and Analysis

1. Bypassing Rate Limits & Scaling to Petabytes

1.1. Understanding Wayback's Rate Limiting System

1.2. The Nuclear Approach: Parallel CDX Scraping

CDX API Query Structure

Solution: Query Shards Individually

1.3. Proxy Rotation: Unlimited Requests from Different IPs

Method 1: Using Tor for Anonymous Requests

Method 2: Using Residential Proxies (Faster but Paid)

1.4. Distributed Scraping with Multiple Machines

Step 1: Set Up Scraper Nodes

Step 2: Run Distributed CDX Queries

Step 3: Merge Data

1.5. Full-Archive Crawling with Wayback Machine Downloader

Final Thoughts

2. Exploiting Hidden CDX API Parameters for Advanced Data Extraction

2.1. CDX API Basics: The Foundation

Common Fields in CDX Responses

2.2. Undocumented CDX Parameters

Hidden Parameter 1: showDupeCount=true

Hidden Parameter 2: matchType=host + filter=~surt (Regex Matching on Domains & Paths)

Example 1: Extract All Subdomains

Example 2: Find Only Admin URLs

Hidden Parameter 3: collapse=statuscode (Track Deleted Pages Over Time)

Hidden Parameter 4: filter=mimetype:image/* (Extract Only Images, PDFs, CSS, JS, etc.)

2.3. Combining Hidden Parameters for Extreme Precision

2.4. Automating CDX Queries for Large-Scale Data Extraction

Pagination with limit and offset

2.5. Live URL Monitoring with Wayback Notifications

Final Thoughts

3. Stealth Archival of Dynamic Content Using Puppeteer

3.1. Why Traditional Archiving Fails on JavaScript-Heavy Sites

❌ Problem 1: HTML Snapshots Capture Only the Shell

❌ Problem 2: Infinite Scrolling Pages Are Tricky

❌ Problem 3: Login-Gated Content is Unreachable

✅ Solution: Puppeteer for JavaScript Rendering

3.2. Setting Up Puppeteer for Archival

Step 1: Install Puppeteer

Step 2: Capture Fully Rendered Page

3.3. Stealth Mode: Avoiding Bot Detection

Step 1: Use Stealth Plugins

Step 2: Rotate User Agents

Step 3: Fake Browser Fingerprints

3.4. Capturing Infinite Scroll Pages (Twitter, Instagram, News Sites)

3.5. Bypassing Login-Walls for Full Archival

Step 1: Automate Login

Step 2: Save Cookies for Persistent Sessions

3.6. Automating Archival & Uploading to Wayback Machine

Step 1: Generate a Screenshot & PDF for Extra Backup

Step 2: Upload to Wayback Machine

3.7. Summary

4. Recovering Censored News Articles Using the CDX API

4.1. Why News Articles Disappear

❌ Reason 1: Government Takedowns

❌ Reason 2: Corporate Influence

❌ Reason 3: Internal Policy Changes

❌ Reason 4: Paywalls & Subscription Models

4.2. Using the CDX API to Retrieve Deleted Articles

Step 1: Query All Archived Versions

Step 2: Fetch a Specific Version

4.3. Automating Deleted Article Recovery with Python

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Step 2: Fetch All Archived Versions

Step 3: Download the Original Content

4.4. Tracking Censorship in News

Step 1: Find the Differences Between Versions

Step 2: Automate Content Comparison in Python

4.5. Finding Deleted News Even Without a Direct URL

Method 1: Google Dorking to Find Archived Pages

Method 2: Searching by Domain

4.6. Recovering Deleted News from Google Cache

Step 1: Check Google’s Cached Version

Step 2: Retrieve Cached Content via URL

4.7. Real-World Example: Recovering Censored Reports

Example 1: The Indian COVID-19 Report Takedown

Example 2: The Chinese Tech Censorship Case

4.8. Summary

5. Tracking Hidden Edits in Website Archives

5.1. Why Websites Secretly Edit Content

❌ Reason 1: Corporate Reputation Management

Hidden Parameter 1: `showDupeCount=true`

Hidden Parameter 2: `matchType=host` + `filter=~surt` (Regex Matching on Domains & Paths)

Hidden Parameter 3: `collapse=statuscode` (Track Deleted Pages Over Time)

**Hidden Parameter 4: `filter=mimetype:image/*` (Extract Only Images, PDFs, CSS, JS, etc.)**

Pagination with `limit` and `offset`

Method 1: Using `changedetection.io`

🔹 Step 2: Use `curl` to Fetch Raw HTML

🔹 Step 2: Use `curl` to Spoof Googlebot