# SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later """Bot protection / IP rate limitation. The intention of rate limitation is to limit suspicious requests from an IP. The motivation behind this is the fact that SearXNG passes through requests from bots and is thus classified as a bot itself. As a result, the SearXNG engine then receives a CAPTCHA or is blocked by the search engine (the origin) in some other way. To avoid blocking, the requests from bots to SearXNG must also be blocked, this is the task of the limiter. To perform this task, the limiter uses the methods from the :ref:`botdetection`: - Analysis of the HTTP header in the request / :ref:`botdetection probe headers` can be easily bypassed. - Block and pass lists in which IPs are listed / :ref:`botdetection ip_lists` are hard to maintain, since the IPs of bots are not all known and change over the time. - Detection & dynamically :ref:`botdetection rate limit` of bots based on the behavior of the requests. For dynamically changeable IP lists a Redis database is needed. The prerequisite for IP based methods is the correct determination of the IP of the client. The IP of the client is determined via the X-Forwarded-For_ HTTP header. .. attention:: A correct setup of the HTTP request headers ``X-Forwarded-For`` and ``X-Real-IP`` is essential to be able to assign a request to an IP correctly: - `NGINX RequestHeader`_ - `Apache RequestHeader`_ .. _X-Forwarded-For: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-For .. _NGINX RequestHeader: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/installation-nginx.html#nginx-s-searxng-site .. _Apache RequestHeader: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/installation-apache.html#apache-s-searxng-site Enable Limiter ============== To enable the limiter activate: .. code:: yaml server: ... limiter: true # rate limit the number of request on the instance, block some bots and set the redis-url connection. Check the value, it depends on your redis DB (see :ref:`settings redis`), by example: .. code:: yaml redis: url: unix:///usr/local/searxng-redis/run/redis.sock?db=0 Configure Limiter ================= The methods of :ref:`botdetection` the limiter uses are configured in a local file ``/etc/searxng/limiter.toml``. The defaults are shown in limiter.toml_ / Don't copy all values to your local configuration, just enable what you need by overwriting the defaults. For instance to activate the ``link_token`` method in the :ref:`botdetection.ip_limit` you only need to set this option to ``true``: .. code:: toml [botdetection.ip_limit] link_token = true .. _limiter.toml: ``limiter.toml`` ================ In this file the limiter finds the configuration of the :ref:`botdetection`: - :ref:`botdetection ip_lists` - :ref:`botdetection rate limit` - :ref:`botdetection probe headers` .. kernel-include:: $SOURCEDIR/limiter.toml :code: toml Implementation ============== """ from __future__ import annotations import sys from pathlib import Path from ipaddress import ip_address import flask import werkzeug from searx import ( logger, redisdb, ) from searx import botdetection from searx.botdetection import ( config, http_accept, http_accept_encoding, http_accept_language, http_user_agent, http_sec_fetch, ip_limit, ip_lists, get_network, get_real_ip, dump_request, ) # the configuration are limiter.toml and "limiter" in settings.yml so, for # coherency, the logger is "limiter" logger = logger.getChild('limiter') CFG: config.Config = None # type: ignore _INSTALLED = False LIMITER_CFG_SCHEMA = Path(__file__).parent / "limiter.toml" """Base configuration (schema) of the botdetection.""" CFG_DEPRECATED = { # "dummy.old.foo": "config 'dummy.old.foo' exists only for tests. Don't use it in your real project config." } def get_cfg() -> config.Config: global CFG # pylint: disable=global-statement if CFG is None: from . import settings_loader # pylint: disable=import-outside-toplevel cfg_file = (settings_loader.get_user_cfg_folder() or Path("/etc/searxng")) / "limiter.toml" CFG = config.Config.from_toml(LIMITER_CFG_SCHEMA, cfg_file, CFG_DEPRECATED) return CFG def filter_request(request: flask.Request) -> werkzeug.Response | None: # pylint: disable=too-many-return-statements cfg = get_cfg() real_ip = ip_address(get_real_ip(request)) network = get_network(real_ip, cfg) if request.path == '/healthz': return None # link-local if network.is_link_local: return None # block- & pass- lists # # 1. The IP of the request is first checked against the pass-list; if the IP # matches an entry in the list, the request is not blocked. # 2. If no matching entry is found in the pass-list, then a check is made against # the block list; if the IP matches an entry in the list, the request is # blocked. # 3. If the IP is not in either list, the request is not blocked. match, msg = ip_lists.pass_ip(real_ip, cfg) if match: logger.warning("PASS %s: matched PASSLIST - %s", network.compressed, msg) return None match, msg = ip_lists.block_ip(real_ip, cfg) if match: logger.error("BLOCK %s: matched BLOCKLIST - %s", network.compressed, msg) return flask.make_response(('IP is on BLOCKLIST - %s' % msg, 429)) # methods applied on all requests for func in [ http_user_agent, ]: val = func.filter_request(network, request, cfg) if val is not None: logger.debug(f"NOT OK ({func.__name__}): {network}: %s", dump_request(flask.request)) return val # methods applied on /search requests if request.path == '/search': for func in [ http_accept, http_accept_encoding, http_accept_language, http_user_agent, http_sec_fetch, ip_limit, ]: val = func.filter_request(network, request, cfg) if val is not None: logger.debug(f"NOT OK ({func.__name__}): {network}: %s", dump_request(flask.request)) return val logger.debug(f"OK: {network}: %s", dump_request(flask.request)) return None def pre_request(): """See :py:obj:`flask.Flask.before_request`""" return filter_request(flask.request) def is_installed(): """Returns ``True`` if limiter is active and a redis DB is available.""" return _INSTALLED def initialize(app: flask.Flask, settings): """Install the limiter""" global _INSTALLED # pylint: disable=global-statement # even if the limiter is not activated, the botdetection must be activated # (e.g. the self_info plugin uses the botdetection to get client IP) cfg = get_cfg() redis_client = redisdb.client() botdetection.init(cfg, redis_client) if not (settings['server']['limiter'] or settings['server']['public_instance']): return if not redis_client: logger.error( "The limiter requires Redis, please consult the documentation: " "https://docs.searxng.org/admin/searx.limiter.html" ) if settings['server']['public_instance']: sys.exit(1) return _INSTALLED = True if settings['server']['public_instance']: # overwrite limiter.toml setting cfg.set('botdetection.ip_limit.link_token', True) app.before_request(pre_request)