[dredmorbius]

That's frankly one of the first thoughts that came to my mind.

I've asked the author about ethical review and processes on the Fediverse.

That said, both Wikipedia and the Linux kernel (mentioned in another response to this subthread) should anticipate and defend against either research-based or purely malicious attacks.

[tetris11]

If it's a mature product, you should be able to pick it up and rattle it without it breaking. If it's still maturing, then maybe the odd shock here and there will prepare it for maturity?

[maxbond]

It's true that the system must be tolerant to these sorts of faults, but that doesn't mean we have a right to stress it. The margin for error is not infinite, and by consuming some of it we increase the likelihood of errors going undetected for longer.

Sometimes it will be worth it anyway, and I don't have an opinion about this Wikipedia example, but I think it's pretty uncontroversial that the Linux example was out of line.