Using the Bot Detection plugin, you can protect your a Gateway Service or a Route from bots. It automatically detects common bots on every request from the associated Gateway Service or Route using regex.
You can also configure custom regex patterns to either allow or deny additional bots.
Once the Bot Detection plugin is enabled on a Gateway Service or Route, it checks the User-Agent header of incoming requests. If the header matches a default common bot or any custom denied bot regex you’ve configured, the request is immediately blocked with a 403 response.
If the User-Agent header doesn’t match any common or specifically denied bots, the request is processed. This also applies when a configured allowed bot matches.
If you suspect bot traffic you can use a logging plugin on a Gateway Service to track down unusual User-Agent headers in incoming requests.
Once you’ve identified the offending User-Agent header, you can block it using the Bot Detection plugin.