How to block PressEngine Bot
Operated by PressEngine. The PressEngine Bot verifies coverage created by video games press as genuine and their own creation. When a member of the video games press is granted a review key for a video game they will create an article, known in the industry as "coverage". When they submit a URL to us as "coverage" we automatically verify this URL exists and is viewable. This automated code announces itself as the PressEngine Bot.
robots.txt
What the agent asks to be told. It obeys this or it does not — nothing enforces it.
User-agent: PressEngine Bot Disallow: /
nginx
In the server block, then reload.
# In the server block. 403 rather than 444: a closed connection tells the
# operator nothing, and an agent that gets a status code can log it.
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(PressEngineBot|PressEngine Bot)") {
return 403;
}
Apache
In .htaccess or the vhost.
BrowserMatchNoCase "PressEngineBot" bad_bot
BrowserMatchNoCase "PressEngine Bot" bad_bot
<RequireAll>
Require all granted
Require not env bad_bot
</RequireAll>
Cloudflare
Security → WAF → Custom rules.
# Security → WAF → Custom rules, action: Block (http.user_agent contains "PressEngineBot") or (http.user_agent contains "PressEngine Bot")
WordPress
A child theme's functions.php, or a small plugin.
// functions.php of a child theme, or a small plugin. Runs before WordPress
// builds the page, so a blocked agent costs one PHP process and no queries.
add_action('init', function () {
$agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
foreach (['PressEngineBot', 'PressEngine Bot'] as $needle) {
if (stripos($agent, $needle) !== false) {
status_header(403);
exit('Blocked: PressEngine Bot');
}
}
});
robots.txt is a request. The rules below it are the wall.
PressEngine Bot publishes a token, so the directive above will work for as long as it keeps honouring it — and nothing except its own good manners makes it. The server rules match on a header the requester sets, which stops the agent that says who it is and not the one that copies somebody else's name. Botscope verifies identity against DNS and published address ranges, records which check decided each request, and shows you the ones that lied.