Dealing with real-browser bot attacks on layer 7 using an NGINX based WAF

As more and more businesses move online, the threat of bot attacks on websites has become a growing concern. Real-browser bots, in particular, pose a significant threat as they can mimic the behavior of human users and bypass traditional security measures. However, there are ways to protect against these attacks using an NGINX-based Web Application Firewall (WAF).

Real-browser bots are a type of malicious bot that can mimic human behavior and evade traditional security measures. They are often used to launch attacks on web applications, such as scraping sensitive data or launching DDoS attacks. Unlike traditional bots that simply send requests to a website, real-browser bots interact with websites as a human would, making them difficult to detect and block.

To combat real-browser bot attacks, I've compiled a stable version of NGINX with some security modules. An NGINX-based WAF can provide a layer of protection against malicious bots by analyzing incoming traffic and blocking requests from known bot sources. NGINX is a popular open-source web server software that is widely used to power websites and applications. It can also be used as a WAF to protect against real-browser bot attacks.

Our NGINX-based WAF can use a variety of techniques to identify and block real-browser bot traffic. One such technique is to analyze the user agent string in incoming requests. The user agent string is a piece of data that is sent by a web browser to a server to identify itself. Real-browser bots often use user agent strings that mimic those of popular web browsers, making them difficult to distinguish from legitimate traffic.

Another technique that can be used to detect and block real-browser bot traffic is to analyze the behavior of incoming requests. Real-browser bots often exhibit behavior that is different from that of human users, such as making requests at an unnatural speed or in a specific order.

In addition to these techniques, our NGINX-based WAF can also use other methods to protect against real-browser bot attacks. It can analyze the IP addresses of incoming requests and block traffic from known bot sources. It can also use techniques such as CAPTCHAs to verify that incoming requests are coming from a human user.

In conclusion, real-browser bot attacks pose a significant threat to websites and web applications. However, there are ways to protect against these attacks using an NGINX-based WAF. By analyzing incoming traffic and blocking requests from known bot sources, an NGINX-based WAF can provide a layer of protection against real-browser bot attacks. With the increasing threat of bot attacks, implementing an NGINX-based WAF is becoming an essential part of any web application security strategy.