How Websites Detect Proxy Usage
There are many ways that websites detect proxy usage, from simple captcha verification to JavaScript fingerprinting and HTTP header analysis. Some methods are easy to implement and can be used with a little knowledge of browser extensions, but others require advanced machine learning to extract and select features for detection. In recent years, deep learning-based methods have become the most popular for detecting proxy traffic.
The most basic method is to compare the IP address to a list of known proxy IP addresses. This is a quick and effective way to identify proxies, but it’s not very accurate. Proxies can be configured to use a wide variety of IPs, and proxy providers change their IP addresses frequently to avoid detection.
Detect Proxy Usage: Uncover Hidden IP Anonymizers
Another method is to run a traceroute and look at the hops the packet makes. Discrepancies in this information can indicate that the user is using a proxy or VPN. Other factors to consider include X-Forwarded-For or Forwarded-Via headers, and variations in User-Agent strings that can be triggered by some proxy software.
More advanced techniques can also be utilized to spot proxies, including timezone matching and device fingerprinting. Identifying these unique characteristics can help to identify users who may be abusing residential proxies. This type of abuse is particularly common in the iGaming industry, where well-funded bots use residential proxies to bypass country and ASN blocks as well as rate-limiting.…