In order to give you better service we use cookies. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of cookies as described in our Cookie Policy

Kong Logo
search
Docs
Kong Konnect Konnect SaaS Kong Gateway (Enterprise) Kong Mesh Plugin Hub
Open Source Kong Gateway (OSS) decK Kubernetes Ingress Controller Insomnia Kuma
Support Community Kong U Demos & Labs
Get Started
Plugin Hub
header icon

Bot Detection

Protects a Service or a Route from most common bots and has the capability of allowing and denying custom clients.

Configuration Reference

This plugin is compatible with requests with the following protocols:

  • http
  • https

This plugin is compatible with DB-less mode.

In DB-less mode, Kong Gateway does not have an Admin API. If using this mode, configure the plugin using declarative configuration.

Enabling the plugin on a service

Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)
Konnect SaaS
Manager

For example, configure this plugin on a service by making the following request:

1
2

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/services/<service>/plugins \
    --data "name=bot-detection"

<service> is the id or name of the service that this plugin configuration will target.

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <bot-detection-example>
config:
  <optional_parameter>: <value>
plugin: bot-detection

Next, apply the KongPlugin resource to a Service by annotating the Service as follows:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: <service>
  labels:
    app: <service>
  annotations:
    konghq.com/plugins: <bot-detection-example>
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 80
    protocol: TCP
    name: <service>
  selector:
    app: <service>

<service> is the id or name of the service that this plugin configuration will target.

Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any service, consumer, or route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a service by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

1
2
3
4
5

plugins:
- name: bot-detection
  service: <service>
  config:
    <optional_parameter>: <value>

<service> is the id or name of the service that this plugin configuration will target.

Configure this plugin on a service:

  1. In Konnect SaaS, select the service on the ServiceHub page.
  2. Scroll down to Versions and select the version.
  3. Scroll down to Plugins and click New Plugin.
  4. Find and select the Bot Detection plugin.
  5. Click Create.

Configure this plugin on a service:

  1. In Kong Manager, select the workspace.
  2. From the Dashboard, scroll down to Services and click View for the service row.
  3. Scroll down to plugins and click Add Plugin.

  4. Find and select the Bot Detection plugin.

    Note: If the plugin is greyed out, then it is not available for your product tier. See Kong Gateway tiers.
  5. If the option is available, select Scoped.
  6. Add the service name and ID to the Service field if it is not already prefilled.
  7. Click Create.

Enabling the plugin on a route

Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)
Konnect SaaS
Manager

For example, configure this plugin on a route with:

1
2

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/routes/<route>/plugins \
    --data "name=bot-detection"

<route> is the id or name of the route that this plugin configuration will target.

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <bot-detection-example>
config:
  <optional_parameter>: <value>
plugin: bot-detection

Then, apply it to an ingress (Route or Routes) by annotating the ingress as follows:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

apiVersion: networking/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: <route>
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
    konghq.com/plugins: <bot-detection-example>
spec:
  rules:
  - host: examplehostname.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /bar
        backend:
          serviceName: echo
          servicePort: 80

<route> is the id or name of the route that this plugin configuration will target.

Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any service, consumer, or route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a route by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

1
2
3
4
5

plugins:
- name: bot-detection
  route: <route>
  config:
    <optional_parameter>: <value>

<route> is the id or name of the route that this plugin configuration will target.

Configure this plugin on a route:

  1. In Konnect SaaS, select the service from the ServiceHub page.
  2. Scroll down to Versions and select the version.
  3. Select the route.
  4. Scroll down to Plugins and click Add Plugin.
  5. Find and select the Bot Detection plugin.
  6. Click Create.

Configure this plugin on a route:

  1. In Kong Manager, select the workspace.
  2. From the Dashboard, select Routes in the left navigation.
  3. Click View for the route row.
  4. Scroll down to plugins and click Add Plugin.

  5. Find and select the Bot Detection plugin.

    Note: If the plugin is greyed out, then it is not available for your product tier. See Kong Gateway tiers.
  6. If the option is available, select Scoped.
  7. Add the Route ID if it is not already prefilled.
  8. Click Create.

Enabling the plugin globally

A plugin which is not associated to any service, route, or consumer is considered global, and will be run on every request. Read the Plugin Reference and the Plugin Precedence sections for more information.

Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)
Kong Manager

For example, configure this plugin globally with:

1
2

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/plugins/ \
    --data "name=bot-detection"

Create a KongClusterPlugin resource and label it as global:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongClusterPlugin
metadata:
  name: <global-bot-detection>
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
  labels:
    global: \"true\"
config:
  <optional_parameter>: <value>
plugin: bot-detection

For example, configure this plugin using the plugins: entry in the declarative configuration file:

1
2
3
4

plugins:
- name: bot-detection
  config:
    <optional_parameter>: <value>

Configure this plugin globally:

  1. In Kong Manager, select the workspace.
  2. From the Dashboard, select Plugins in the left navigation.
  3. Click New Plugin.

  4. Find and select the Bot Detection plugin.

    Note: If the plugin is greyed out, then it is not available for your product tier. See Kong Gateway tiers.
  5. If the option is available, set the plugin scope to Global.
  6. Click Create.

Parameters

Here's a list of all the parameters which can be used in this plugin's configuration:

Form ParameterDescription
name

Type: string		 The name of the plugin to use, in this case bot-detection.
service.id

Type: string		 The ID of the Service the plugin targets.
route.id

Type: string		 The ID of the Route the plugin targets.
enabled

Type: boolean

Default value: true		 Whether this plugin will be applied.
config.allow
optional

Type: array of string elements

An array of regular expressions that should be allowed. The regular expressions will be checked against the User-Agent header.
config.deny
optional

Type: array of string elements

An array of regular expressions that should be denied. The regular expressions will be checked against the User-Agent header.

Default rules

The plugin already includes a basic list of rules that will be checked on every request. You can find this list on GitHub at https://github.com/Kong/kong/blob/master/kong/plugins/bot-detection/rules.lua.