What is bot management?

Bot management refers to bot detection as well as the blocking of undesired or malicious Internet bot traffic, all while still allowing useful bots to access web APIs and properties. It may deploy mechanisms such as allow and block lists, rate limiting, and bot traps, for mitigating the risk and damage of bot attacks. As internet traffic becomes more bot-driven, comprehensive bot management provides the best defense against the numerous automated threats — such as application-layer DDoS attacks, as well as SQL injection risks and spam campaigns — that can harm business applications.

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Why is bot management necessary?

The same fundamental features that make good bots so useful also make bad bots so threatening.

A bot can automate a broad spectrum of activities, ranging from crawling for purposes of search engine indexing, to supporting real-time chat interfaces for customer service and business intelligence. But this efficient automation can be leveraged for scalable and highly effective cyberattacks, too. Common examples include but are not limited to:

  • Vulnerability Scanning and Probing: Malicious bots may continuously look for vulnerabilities in internet-facing web applications and APIs. If found, any weakness can be exploited by cross-scripting (XSS), SQL injection and related bot-dependent attacks.
  • Account Takeover: Bots may be used in credential stuffing and password spraying attacks, both of which involve attempting to break into accounts by brute-force guessing - a task to which bot-driven automation is naturally suited.

To mitigate these risks and others, modern bot management solutions perform bot detection – through IP address analysis, bot signatures, device fingerprinting and behavioral analysis. Bot management solutions enable you to reliably defend your web applications and APIs from every type of bot attack, from a basic attempt at password spraying to a highly sophisticated botnet-powered DDoS campaign.

How does bot management work?

Bot management follows a lifecycle from bot detection (identifying the bot) through bot action (allowing or denying the bot traffic) and finally to bot reporting (logging the nature, origin and action taken of bot traffic). Moreover, it can work in tandem with solutions like web application firewalls (WAF), DDoS mitigation solutions, API defense and protection for both monolithic and microservice-based applications, to deliver streamlined, holistic cybersecurity across environments.

Bot detection

Multiple bot detection techniques are supported by modern bot management solutions:

  1. Bot signature files and profiles
  2. Transactions per second (TPS)
  3. Malicious IP address blocking and IP reputation analysis
  4. Device fingerprinting
  5. Bot traps

Bot action and reporting

Together, these bot detection techniques enable bot management tools to manage and log bot traffic in accordance with bot policy rules, with support from mechanisms including but not limited to:

Rate limiting and related traffic controls

Using the traffic management features in a bot management tool, it is possible to set limits on designated bot traffic and prevent bad bots from entering the network, even if they have made it past other detection mechanisms. For example, an unknown bot that is not contained on either an allow list or a block list can be rate-limited so that it cannot overwhelm an API or microservice architecture. Bot management solutions may also redirect and drop bot traffic once it is flagged by any of the above detection techniques.

CAPTCHA enforcement


Allow list and block list deployment


Reporting and followup


Citrix bot management as one piece of the security puzzle

To effectively manage bots and contain malicious bot activity, Citrix Bot Management is integrated into Citrix ADC and supported by Bot Insights within Citrix ADM. Bot management is also a core component of the multi-layered protection provided through Citrix Web App and API Security (CWAAP).

Citrix Bot Management works alongside the DDoS attack mitigation measures, WAFs, microservices security, artificial intelligence, and machine learning capabilities in CWAAP. Through the aggregation of information from bot management servers and Citrix ADCs, CWAAP ensures you have comprehensive security that is always up-to-date. Moreover, as a cloud-delivered managed service, it is easy to configure and deploy from a single pane of glass.

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