What is ProjectShieldUrlCheck?

ProjectShieldUrlCheck is a bot in the security scanners category, operated by Google.

Bot name
ProjectShieldUrlCheck
Operator
Google
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
ProjectShield-UrlCheck
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About ProjectShieldUrlCheck

Project Shield, created by Google Cloud and Jigsaw and powered by Google Cloud Armor, provides free unlimited protection against DDoS attacks, a type of digital attack used to censor information by taking websites offline.

Security scanners probe sites for vulnerabilities, certificates and exposed services. Some are research projects, some are vendors you hired. Allow your own scanners and block the rest at the WAF.

ProjectShieldUrlCheck user agent

ProjectShieldUrlCheck identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ProjectShield-UrlCheck; +http://g.co/projectshield)

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 ProjectShieldUrlCheck in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether ProjectShieldUrlCheck 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 ProjectShieldUrlCheck from the whole site

User-agent: ProjectShield-UrlCheck
Disallow: /

Block ProjectShieldUrlCheck from some folders

User-agent: ProjectShield-UrlCheck
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow ProjectShieldUrlCheck only on some folders

User-agent: ProjectShield-UrlCheck
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow ProjectShieldUrlCheck and block other crawlers

User-agent: ProjectShield-UrlCheck
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: ProjectShield-UrlCheck group, ProjectShieldUrlCheck ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take ProjectShield-UrlCheck from ProjectShieldUrlCheck's user agent; check Google'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. ProjectShieldUrlCheck may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that ProjectShieldUrlCheck 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 ProjectShieldUrlCheck's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Google's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real ProjectShieldUrlCheck from a fake one.

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

Who should care about ProjectShieldUrlCheck

Publishers

Allow ProjectShieldUrlCheck if it is a service you use, and keep its visits out of page views and ad requests either way.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

ProjectShieldUrlCheck is not a person. Exclude it from campaign and conversion data so reports reflect real visitors.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Allow ProjectShieldUrlCheck only if it works for your store, and keep it away from cart and checkout.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

If ProjectShieldUrlCheck is a service you use, allow it on the endpoints it needs and block it elsewhere.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block ProjectShieldUrlCheck with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows ProjectShieldUrlCheck 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 ProjectShieldUrlCheck on your site

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

Frequently asked questions

What is ProjectShieldUrlCheck?

ProjectShieldUrlCheck is a bot in the security scanners category, operated by Google. Project Shield, created by Google Cloud and Jigsaw and powered by Google Cloud Armor, provides free unlimited protection against DDoS attacks, a type of digital attack used to censor information by taking websites offline.

Does ProjectShieldUrlCheck respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether ProjectShieldUrlCheck 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 ProjectShieldUrlCheck?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block ProjectShieldUrlCheck?

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

Should I block ProjectShieldUrlCheck?

Security scanners probe sites for vulnerabilities, certificates and exposed services. Some are research projects, some are vendors you hired. Allow your own scanners and block the rest at the WAF.

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