Subhash
raman Staff answered 5 months ago
Receiving a high volume of visits to your 404 page (Page Not Found) from malicious bots can be due to several reasons. Here are some common explanations and solutions:
Reasons for High 404 Visits from Malicious Bots
Content Scraping: Bots may be trying to scrape content from your site but are hitting pages that no longer exist or were never there.
Vulnerability Scanning: Malicious bots often scan websites for vulnerabilities by trying to access common files, directories, and scripts that might expose security weaknesses.
Broken Links: If there are broken links on your site or on external sites pointing to your site, bots will follow these and land on your 404 page.
Spam Bots: Some bots randomly generate URLs in the hope of finding pages they can spam.
Old or Outdated URLs: If you’ve restructured your site and didn’t properly redirect old URLs, bots (and users) might still be trying to access these outdated links.
Botnet Attacks: Sometimes, botnets are directed to overwhelm specific sites by generating random or non-existent URL requests.
Solutions to Reduce 404 Visits from Malicious Bots
Implement Rate Limiting:
Use tools like Cloudflare, Akamai, or Nginx to limit the number of requests per IP address. This can help reduce the impact of bots.
Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF):
A WAF can block malicious traffic and provide real-time monitoring. Solutions like AWS WAF, Cloudflare WAF, and Sucuri offer robust protection.
Set Up Proper Redirects:
Ensure that old or outdated URLs are properly redirected to relevant pages using 301 redirects. This can reduce the number of legitimate 404s.
Monitor and Analyze Traffic:
Use tools like Google Analytics and server logs to identify patterns in 404 errors. This can help distinguish between legitimate traffic and malicious bots.
Robots.txt:
Use the robots.txt file to disallow bots from accessing certain parts of your site, though be aware that malicious bots often ignore this file.
Honeypots:
Set up honeypots (hidden fields in forms that only bots will fill out) to identify and block malicious bots.
CAPTCHA and Bot Challenges:
Implement CAPTCHA on forms and login pages to prevent automated bots from accessing these pages.
IP Blocking:
Identify and block IP addresses that generate a high number of 404 errors. Tools like Fail2Ban can automate this process.
Security Plugins for CMS:
If you are using a CMS like WordPress, install security plugins like Wordfence, Sucuri, or iThemes Security to protect against bot traffic.
Custom 404 Page:
Create a custom 404 page that logs the referrer and details of the request. This can provide insights into why the 404 page is being accessed frequently.
Precautions
Avoid Overblocking: Ensure legitimate users are not inadvertently blocked. Regularly review and adjust your blocking rules.
Regular Updates: Keep all software, plugins, and CMS platforms updated to protect against vulnerabilities.
Backup Data: Regularly back up your website data to recover quickly in case of an attack.
By implementing these measures, you can reduce the number of 404 errors caused by malicious bots and improve the overall security and performance of your website.
Amit Khanna Staff answered 5 months ago
Bots causing 404 errors on a website can be due to several reasons. Here are some common causes:
Crawling Deprecated or Removed Pages: Bots may try to access pages that have been removed or deprecated. This often happens if the bot is following old links or a sitemap that hasn’t been updated.
Incorrect URL Structures: Bots might attempt to access URLs that are malformed or incorrectly structured. This can happen if there are issues with the way the URLs are being generated or linked within the site.
Broken Internal Links: If there are broken links within your website, bots will follow these links and encounter 404 errors.
External Links to Nonexistent Pages: Other websites might link to your site using incorrect URLs. When bots follow these external links, they end up hitting 404 pages.
Aggressive Crawling: Some bots crawl websites aggressively, attempting to access URLs that do not exist. This can lead to a high number of 404 errors.
Testing and Probing for Vulnerabilities: Malicious bots often scan websites for vulnerabilities by trying to access common admin pages, login portals, or other sensitive directories that don’t exist on your site, causing 404 errors.
Old or Incorrect Sitemaps: If your sitemap includes outdated URLs, bots will attempt to access these URLs and result in 404 errors.
How to Mitigate This Issue:
Update Sitemaps: Ensure your sitemap is up-to-date with only existing and valid URLs.
Redirects: Implement 301 redirects for removed or deprecated pages to guide bots and users to the correct or most relevant pages.
Regularly Check for Broken Links: Use tools to regularly scan your website for broken links and fix them promptly.
Review and Clean Up External Links: If possible, reach out to other websites linking to your site incorrectly and ask them to update their links.
Robots.txt File: Use the robots.txt file to disallow bots from crawling irrelevant or non-existent sections of your website.
Monitor and Analyze Bot Activity: Use web analytics and server logs to monitor bot activity and identify patterns leading to 404 errors.
By implementing these practices, you can minimize the occurrence of 404 errors caused by bots on your website.