msnbot / bingbot interacting with my site's search script

started recently

[SumGuy]

I have a search script / function on my website that has really never worked, but I've not cared about that enough to fix it.

But something strange that I'm seeing every day now that just started on Sept 25.

The microsoft bots (bingbot according to the user-agent) operating from 40.77.167.x and 52.167.144.x are appending these strings when requesting the script file:

UserRestriction=
UserRestriction=2025
UserRestriction=2026

The numbers 2025 and 2026 must be a reference to the year 2025 or 2026?

Any idea what it's trying to accomplish?

[lucy24]

Since this is bingbot we’re talking about, you cannot exclude option B: they found these parameters attached to some other page on someone else’s site, and things got scrambled. They do it with URLpaths, so why not parameters?