Google-HTTP-Java-Client

Whilst posting a string of posts to a new site on my WordPress Multisite I spotted something odd. Tailing the WPMS access_log, looking for 404s and 500s and such, when I noticed that every new post I put up was followed by a couple of HEAD requests for the image contained in that post. The HEAD requests came from that pulse point of garbage web traffic: Amazon Web Services.

The requests showed user agent as “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”.

I am guessing (and hoping) that this is a “feature” of the bloated JETPACK add-ons from Automaticc.

Why would a random AWS drone ping my WPMS postings in real time without more clearly identifying itself? Only images are treated to this HEAD request, not text content.

ec2-54-245-122-148.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:13:59:09 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-10-21_40_27-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-148.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:13:59:09 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-10-21_40_27-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-241-198-78.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:00:31 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-10-21_45_02-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-241-198-78.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:00:31 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-10-21_45_02-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-148.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:01:22 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-10-21_46_04-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-148.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:01:22 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-10-21_46_04-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-184-169-203-101.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:13:38 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-11-22_03_53-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-184-169-203-101.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:13:39 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-11-22_03_53-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-184-169-203-101.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:13:40 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-11-22_03_53-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-184-169-203-101.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:13:40 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-11-22_03_53-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:18:24 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-21-14_29_22-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:18:24 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-21-14_29_22-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-148.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:21:17 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-23-19_20_49-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-148.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:21:17 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-23-19_20_49-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-241-198-78.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:22:37 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-28-19_16_00-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-241-198-78.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:22:37 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-28-19_16_00-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:24:15 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-28-19_16_14-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:24:15 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-07-28-19_16_14-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:25:28 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-06-17_31_24-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:25:28 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-06-17_31_24-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-148.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:26:15 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-14-23_06_10-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-148.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:26:15 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-14-23_06_10-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-241-198-78.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:27:39 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-15-17_01_07-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-241-198-78.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:27:39 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-15-17_01_07-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:28:25 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-15-18_09_54-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:28:25 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-15-18_09_54-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:31:00 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-15-18_28_26-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”
ec2-54-245-122-208.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com – – [31/May/2014:14:31:00 -0400] “HEAD /wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/05/2013-08-15-18_28_26-1024×768.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 262 “-” “Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.17.0-rc (gzip)”