What is OpenRSS?

OpenRSS is a bot in the feed fetchers category, operated by OpenRSS.

Bot name
OpenRSS
Operator
OpenRSS
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
OpenRSS
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About OpenRSS

RSS Feed Provider / Feed Fetcher

Feed fetchers poll RSS and Atom feeds for readers, aggregators and podcast apps. They usually request feeds only, so they are cheap to allow. Watch for fetchers that pull full pages at high rates.

OpenRSS user agent

OpenRSS identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • OpenRSS

Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.

How to block OpenRSS in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether OpenRSS follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block OpenRSS from the whole site

User-agent: OpenRSS
Disallow: /

Block OpenRSS from some folders

User-agent: OpenRSS
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow OpenRSS only on some folders

User-agent: OpenRSS
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow OpenRSS and block other crawlers

User-agent: OpenRSS
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: OpenRSS group, OpenRSS ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take OpenRSS from OpenRSS's user agent; check OpenRSS's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. OpenRSS may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that OpenRSS follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send OpenRSS's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by OpenRSS's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real OpenRSS from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about OpenRSS

Publishers

OpenRSS fetches pages when your links are shared or syndicated. Keep it allowed so previews and feeds work, but leave it out of page views and ad requests.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

When ads or posts are shared, OpenRSS fetches the landing page. Those hits are not clicks, so keep them out of campaign reports.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Product links shared in chats and feeds are fetched by OpenRSS. Keep it allowed so previews show the right image and price.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow OpenRSS on public pages so shared links preview well, and keep it off the app.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block OpenRSS with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows OpenRSS by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.

Transfon Security

Control OpenRSS on your site

  • See every OpenRSS visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit OpenRSS with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is OpenRSS?

OpenRSS is a bot in the feed fetchers category, operated by OpenRSS. RSS Feed Provider / Feed Fetcher

Does OpenRSS respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether OpenRSS follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block OpenRSS?

Add "User-agent: OpenRSS" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "OpenRSS" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block OpenRSS?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so OpenRSS may not follow it, and anyone can send OpenRSS's user agent, so a fake OpenRSS ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block OpenRSS?

Feed fetchers poll RSS and Atom feeds for readers, aggregators and podcast apps. They usually request feeds only, so they are cheap to allow. Watch for fetchers that pull full pages at high rates.

Related bots

All feed fetchers · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.

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