Block Aggressive AI Bots with Our ModSecurity Rules

Here at Imunify, we're always monitoring web data at scale - and we've noticed a clear trend: legitimate AI bots, like those from Meta, Apple, OpenAI, and other reputable organizations, are increasingly behaving aggressively, excessively consuming server resources, and often ignoring instructions in files like robot.txt.

These sorts of issues caused by AI-powered bots can severely impact both website performance and resource efficiency.

To assist hosting providers and website owners in effectively managing these aggressive bots, we’ve created specialized ModSecurity rule sets designed to precisely and effectively block significant AI bot traffic for some of the most popular AI modules.

ModSecurity Rules for Blocking AI Bots

You can find instructions on how to add those rules here.

Amazon

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx Amazonbot" "id:88345386,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for Amazon AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

Anthropic

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx anthropic-ai" "id:88345387,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for Anthropic AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

Applebot

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx Applebot" "id:88345388,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for Applebot AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

ChatGPT

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx ChatGPT-User" "id:88345389,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for ChatGPT AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

Claude

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx ClaudeBot" "id:88345390,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for Claude AI bots',tag:'service_im360'"

DuckDuckGo

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx DuckAssistbot" "id:88345391,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for DuckDuckGo AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

FactSet

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx Factset_spyderbot" "id:88345392,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for FactSet AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

Vertex

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx Google-CloudVertexBot" "id:88345393,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for Vertex AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

Google

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx GoogleOther/" "id:88345394,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for Google AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

GPTBot

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx GPTBot" "id:88345395,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for GPTBot AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"

ICC-Crawler

SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:User-Agent "@rx ICCCrawler" "id:88345396,phase:1,block,nolog,auditlog,severity:5,t:none,msg:'IM360 WAF: Request rate tracking for ICC-Crawler AI bot',tag:'service_im360'"