Cloudflare BOT fight blocking website

[aryanshirani (Aryan)]

We tried to follow the guide to whitelist our IP but if cloudflare has Bot fight on, child sites are not able to connect.

Anyone found a solution to this problem?

Thanks

[bojan (Bojan Katusic)]

Hey @aryanshirani

Unfortunately, Cloudflare’s Bot Fight Mode doesn’t offer the granularity to whitelist specific IPs, which is why the connection from the Dashboard is being blocked.

At this moment, the only recourse is to disable Bot Fight Mode for that Child Site.

[aryanshirani (Aryan)]

How do we protect from unwanted traffic in case? Any alternative?
Thanks

[bojan (Bojan Katusic)]

I believe exclusions to Bot Fight Mode can be made in the paid Pro plan.

Please try reaching out to Cloudflare support to verify that and have them check if perhaps some kind of exclusion can be made even in the free plan.

Beyond that, there are some alternatives (e.g., Akamai Bot Manager, Imperva), although they might not provide the exact same functionality.
Some come in the form of WordPress plugins such as Wordfence or Sucuri,

[mandrael (Michael Gasperl)]

Hi! I have the same problem. But some more details to add.

Above the current Cloudflare WAF settings. There are indeed options to deactivate the Bot Fight Mode, but after adding the rules (IP AND referer) it didn’t work (yet, perhaps it needs time to implement). Only if I deactivate the Bot Fight Mode completley (btw it is a Free plan option today in Cloudflare, few years ago it was only in Pro).
To fight spam bots, especially for forms, Cleantalk is the best I know.
But also adding a 7G or 8G firewall helps. And currently there is a LTD on AppSumo: Wordpress Security Ninja. It adds teh 8G rules and has a comprehensive bot/malware firewall (The Cloud Firewall is a list of 600 million+ bad IPs. The list is updated daily from many sources.).
Best, Michael

[bojan (Bojan Katusic)]

Hey @mandrael

@mandrael

Only if I deactivate the Bot Fight Mode completley (btw it is a Free plan option today in Cloudflare, few years ago it was only in Pro).

That’s correct. Right now, if Bot Fight mode is causing connectivity issues, the only solution is to disable it completely.
Cloudflare Pro plan might offer additional options for fine-tuning the Bot Fight mode.

@mandrael

To fight spam bots, especially for forms, Cleantalk is the best I know.
But also adding a 7G or 8G firewall helps. And currently there is a LTD on AppSumo: Wordpress Security Ninja. It adds teh 8G rules and has a comprehensive bot/malware firewall (The Cloud Firewall is a list of 600 million+ bad IPs. The list is updated daily from many sources.).

Thanks for the suggestion.