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Bot Types

Understanding the various types of bots that may pose risks to your application is crucial. In order to help you have better knowledge about bots, we have systematically categorized them based on their unique behaviors and characteristics.

Good Bot​

A good bot is a software program that performs useful or helpful tasks that aren't detrimental to a user's experience on the Internet. Good bots are often used to automate tasks that would be tedious or time-consuming for humans, such as searching for information, providing customer service, or crawling websites.

There are several types of good bots, each serving a specific purpose. Here are a few examples:

  • Search engine bots: These bots crawl content on websites on the Internet, then index that content to make it easier for users to find information. Search engines like Google, and Bing operate them.
  • Social media bots: These bots automate tasks on social media, such as posting updates, responding to comments, or sending messages.
  • Customer service bots: These bots provide customer service support, such as answering questions, resolving issues, or enhancing the customer service experience.
  • Crawling bots: These bots crawl websites and collect data, like product listings or user profiles. This data can be used for various purposes such as price comparison or marketing.

Good bots play a crucial role in the Internet, contributing to a more efficient and user-friendly environment.

Account takeover bot​

An account takeover bot is a type of software program that is used to automate the process of taking over online accounts. Account takeover bots are typically used by cybercriminals to gain access to accounts that they do not own, such as bank accounts, email accounts, and social media accounts.

Account takeover bots work by using a variety of techniques, such as:

  • Brute force attacks: This involves trying different combinations of usernames and passwords until the correct combination is found.
  • Password spraying: This involves trying a small number of common passwords against a large number of accounts.
  • Phishing: This involves sending emails or text messages that appear to be from a legitimate source, such as a bank or a social media platform. The emails or text messages will often contain a link that, when clicked, will take the victim to a fake website that looks like the real website. Once the victim enters their login credentials on the fake website, the cybercriminal will be able to steal them.

Account takeover bots are a serious threat to online security. It is important to be aware of the risks and to take steps to protect accounts from attack.

Scraper bot​

A scraper bot, also known as a web scraper or data scraper, is a software program that is used to extract data from websites. Scraper bots are typically used to automate the process of collecting data from websites, and they can be used for a variety of purposes, such as:

  • Creating product feeds for online retailers
  • Generating reports on market trends
  • Tracking competitor pricing
  • Collecting customer reviews
  • Scraping social media data

Scraper bots work by sending HTTP requests to websites, parsing the HTML code that is returned, and extracting the data needed. The HTML code contains the structure of the website, as well as the text, images, and other elements that are displayed on the page.

The legality of using scraper bots to extract data from websites depends on the terms of service of the website in question. Some websites explicitly prohibit the use of scraper bots, while others allow it with certain restrictions.

Some of the risks of using scraper bots:

  • They can be used to violate the terms of service of websites, which could result in legal action.
  • They can be used to collect data that is not intended to be public, such as personal information or financial data.
  • They can overload websites with requests, which can slow down the performance of the website or even cause it to crash.

Scalper bot​

Scalping is a frequent challenge faced by e-commerce and ticketing industries, often leading to inventory denial. Online scalping is carried out by using scalper bots, these bots are deployed to outpace genuine consumers in securing fast-moving goods such as event tickets, gaming consoles, and limited-edition items. Because bots quickly add sought-after items to their carts, normal users often miss out on good deals and discounts. Scalper bots enable fraudsters to complete purchases rapidly, allowing them to stockpile these items in bulk. These items can then be resold at a premium. Alternatively, attackers may later abandon the items in their carts, leading to potential losses for the business.

API Abuse bot​

As APIs become more frequently targeted by cyber attackers, API abuse bots have been created to exploit these crucial components of digital infrastructure. They send an unusually high number of requests within a short period, far exceeding normal user behavior, and they usually target some valuable endpoints.

API abuse bots can be used to carry out a variety of attacks, including:

  • Denial of service (DoS) attacks: These attacks flood an API with requests, causing it to crash or become unresponsive.
  • Data scraping: These attacks collect sensitive data from an API, such as user credentials or financial information.

Betting bot​

A betting bot is a software program that automatically places bets on online betting platforms based on predefined rules, or strategies. These bots are also known as casino bots, gambling bots, or value-betting software. Betting bots are typically used to speed up the betting process, moreover, they can also be used to implement complex betting strategies.

Betting bots can be used for both legal and illegal gambling. In some cases, betting bots have been used to exploit betting markets and make large profits.

Bad IP Reputation​

A Bad IP Reputation bot is a bot that utilizes a Proxy, VPN, Tor, or IP Address that comes from a data center. These methods are employed for various reasons:

  • Using Proxies and VPNs: To avoid detection, the bot rotates through a large pool of IP addresses provided by proxy servers and VPNs.
  • Leveraging Tor: To increase anonymity and evade detection further, the bot routes some login attempts through the Tor network. The use of Tor makes it nearly impossible to trace the attack back to the source, as the traffic appears to come from randomly dispersed exit nodes.
  • Using Data Center IPs: Throughout the majority of the attacks, bots operate from powerful servers hosted in a data center. These servers can handle large volumes of requests quickly and are always online, allowing bots to run continuously.

The use of proxies, VPNs, Tor, and data center IP addresses allows the attacker to disguise the origin of the attack, and avoid detection.

Unusual traffic bot​

An unusual traffic bot describes a bot whose activities fall outside the normal behavior of a human user on a website. This can include activities like:

  • Sending a large number of requests in a short time.
  • Sending requests from a large number of different IP addresses.
  • Send a huge number of requests to a specific endpoint.

There are many reasons why a website might detect unusual traffic bots. One possibility is that the website is being targeted by bots. If a bot sends a large number of requests to a website, it can overload the site's resources, leading to slower performance or even causing the site to crash. Another possibility is that the website is being used for malicious purposes. For example, a hacker might try to access a website's admin panel by repeatedly trying to log in with incorrect credentials. If the hacker succeeds, they could gain control of the website, potentially using it to carry out attacks or steal data.

Unusual client-side behavior​

An unusual client-side behavior bot is a type of bot that attempts to imitate human activity on a website but displays behaviors that differ from those of a genuine browser. Indicators include missing UI events, fake mobile user agents, outdated browser versions, abnormal mouse movements, and excessively long session durations, all of which are considered signs of abnormal client-side behavior.

Here are some examples of unusual client-side behaviors:

  • User opens developer tool
  • Session duration is too long
  • No UI Event, such as mouse movement, input key...
  • Browser version is obsolete
  • Fake mobile user agent

Headless browser bot​

A headless browser bot is a software program that operates without a graphical user interface (GUI), in other words, it cannot be seen or interacted with by humans. Headless browser bots are often used for automation tasks, such as scraping data from dynamic websites that are more difficult to scrape because the data is locked behind JavaScript elements or forms.

Here are some examples of headless tools:

  • Selenium: Selenium is a popular open-source automation testing framework that can also be used to create headless bots.
  • Puppeteer: Puppeteer is a headless browser automation library developed by Google.
  • Playwright: This is a new headless browser framework that is similar to Puppeteer.

Fake browser bot​

A fake browser bot is a software program that is used to mimic the behavior of a real web browser. This is done to bypass bot detection mechanisms that are used to prevent automated access to websites. Fake browser bots work by modifying the user agent string, which is a piece of information that is sent by web browsers to websites. The user agent string identifies the browser that is being used, as well as the operating system and other details. By modifying the user agent string, fake browser bots can make it appear as if they are coming from a legitimate web browser. In addition to modifying the user agent string, fake browser bots can also be used to spoof other aspects of the browser's behavior, such as the screen resolution, the installed plugins, and the browsing history.

Fake browser bots are often used for malicious purposes, such as scraping data from websites, spamming, and launching denial-of-service attacks. However, they can also be used for legitimate purposes, such as testing web applications or creating automated scripts.

Here are some of the ways that fake browser bots can be used:

  • Spamming: Fake browser bots can be used to send spam emails or post spam comments on websites. This can be used to promote products or services, spread malware, or simply annoy people.
  • Denial-of-service attacks: Fake browser bots can be used to launch denial-of-service attacks, which are designed to overwhelm websites with traffic and make them unavailable to legitimate users. This can be done by sending a large number of requests to a website in a short time.
  • Scraping data from websites: Fake browser bots can be used to scrape data from websites, such as product listings, pricing information, or customer reviews. This data can then be used for various purposes, such as creating competitor analysis reports or building product feeds for online retailers.
  • Testing web applications: Fake browser bots can be used to test web applications, such as e-commerce websites or online banking platforms. This can be done by simulating the behavior of real users and checking for errors or vulnerabilities.

Fake crawler bot​

A fake crawler bot is a type of bot that is designed to mimic the behavior of a web crawler. However, the bot is actually programmed to send fake requests that are not legitimate. This can be used for malicious purposes, such as scraping data or launching denial-of-service attacks.

Here are some examples of fake requests that a fake crawler bot might send:

  • Requests for pages that do not exist.
  • Requests for pages that are not publicly accessible.
  • Requests that contain invalid or corrupt data.
  • Requests that are sent at an unusually high frequency.

Browser automation​

  • Browser automation refers to the use of software tools and scripts to programmatically control and interact with a web browser. This automation allows tasks such as navigating websites, filling out forms, clicking buttons, extracting data, and testing web applications to be performed automatically without human intervention.

  • Browser automation is commonly used in web scraping, automated testing, and routine tasks like website monitoring.

Bad Header bot​

A bad header bot is a type of bot that sends requests to websites with invalid or incorrect headers. The request can lack common HTTP request headers that are required in a normal web browser. This can be done to bypass bot detection mechanisms and gain access to websites that are normally restricted to human users only.

Bad User-Agent bot​

A bad user agent bot is a type of bot that sends requests to websites using a user agent string that is either not associated with any legitimate web browser or belongs to an HTTP library. These bots target one or a few specific valuable endpoints and use an HTTP library to retrieve data in their program.

Common HTTP libraries used by bots include Apache HttpClient, Python's Requests, Axios, and others. Here are some examples of bad user agent strings:

  • python-requests/2.31.0
  • Apache-HttpClient/4.5.13 (Java/1.8.0_151)
  • okhttp/4.10.0
  • PostmanRuntime/7.32.2