Ryan BrownIf you manage a ColdFusion application and you’ve noticed unexplained server slowdowns, unusual traffic spikes, or user agents like python-requests and curl/7.64, you’ve likely been visited by aggressive web crawlers. While some bots are harmless (e.g., Googlebot), others are designed to scrape content, brute-force forms, or test vulnerabilities.
In our previous Learn article, we introduced foundational strategies for mitigating web crawling. In this follow-up, we’ll dive into how Cloudflare becomes a powerful first layer of defense for ColdFusion developers looking to reduce risk, protect server resources, and regain control over their traffic. This is the strategy we recommend to almost every ColdFusion hosting customer.
🛡️ Cloudflare: Your First Line of Defense
Cloudflare sits in front of your web application, inspecting and filtering every request before it hits your ColdFusion server. Whether you’re hosting a legacy CFML app or using the most recent ColdFusion 2025 build, Cloudflare requires no code changes to start offering real protection.
Let’s explore the most relevant features and how ColdFusion developers can apply them with minimal configuration.
🤖 Bot Management: Filter First, Then Fight
Cloudflare offers a multi-tiered Bot Management platform offering many of their features for free but also offering highly customizable enterprise features for those who need them.
Free Plan – Bot Fight Mode
A one-click feature that challenges or blocks generic bots from data centers and headless toolchains (e.g., curl, python, Go-http-client) through JavaScript challenges and fingerprinting. It’s easy to enable (Security → Bots)
You can activate it with just a toggle in your Cloudflare dashboard. See full details here.
Pro/Business Plans – Super Bot Fight Mode
A one-click feature that challenges or blocks generic bots from data centers and headless toolchains (e.g., curl, python, Go-http-client) through JavaScript challenges and fingerprinting. It’s easy to enable (Security → Bots)
Explore what’s included in the Pro tier here, or see the feature comparison here.
Enterprise Plan – Full Bot Management Suite
Unlocks machine-learning based bot scoring, API access, fine-grained rules, and deep analytics—ideal for high-risk applications .See the full Enterprise offering breakdown here.
🔥 Web Application Firewall (WAF): Block Before They Get In
Cloudflare’s free WAF lets you create custom rules to block suspicious traffic based on:
- User-Agent contents
- HTTP methods
- URL paths (e.g. .cfm pages)
- Geographic origin
You can challenge, block, or CAPTCHA traffic matching patterns commonly seen in scrapers, even in the free tier.
Upgrading to Pro adds managed WAF rulesets including OWASP protections, stolen credentials checks, SQL injection prevention, and more
🚦 Rate Limiting: Stop High-Volume Attacks
Cloudflare allows you to define thresholds for request rates per IP. Common use cases:
- Throttle access to /login.cfm
- Limit search queries hitting /search.cfm
- Protect API endpoints like /api/*.cfm
Rate limiting is included on all plans, with pricing based on usage. It’s a low-cost, high-impact way to stop malicious bursts or slow-and-steady scraper activity.
🧩 Real-World Turnstile Examples in ColdFusion
Cloudflare Turnstile is a CAPTCHA alternative that respects user privacy and is free to use. It works without user interaction in most cases, meaning less friction for legitimate visitors while still stopping automated attacks.
✅ Ben Nadel’s Example
In Using Cloudflare Turnstile reCAPTCHA‑Alternative In ColdFusion, Ben details a component-driven integration for validating form submissions. It’s ideal for modular and reusable usage in CFML apps.
✅ Pete Freitag’s Example
Pete’s guide, Adding CloudFlare Turnstile CAPTCHAs to CFML Sites, shows a tag-based implementation using CFML forms—well-suited for legacy or simpler ColdFusion codebases.
🔄 Combining Turnstile with WAF for Smart Protection
Cloudflare offers an advanced integration that allows you to trigger Turnstile only when suspicious patterns are detected. This is done through a combination of WAF rules and Turnstile challenges, which can be applied only to fetch/XHR requests, POST requests, or specific headers.
Read the official guide for how to combine these tools here:
👉 Integrating Turnstile with the Cloudflare WAF and Bot Management
This is a great way to protect your ColdFusion APIs and endpoints without annoying users unnecessarily.
📈 Monitor and Improve Over Time
After deployment, make it part of your routine to:
- Check Cloudflare analytics (Bot reports, event logs)
- Review ColdFusion server logs for anomalies (e.g. spikes in 404s)
- Adjust firewall and rate limits based on real-world usage
- Whitelist known integrations to prevent legitimate disruptions
Custom and adaptive tuning ensures your app remains both fast and secure.
🧰 What You Get for Free (and When to Upgrade)
Here’s what you can accomplish on the Cloudflare Free plan:
| Feature | Free Plan |
| Bot Fight Mode | ✅ (basic bot blocking) |
| Turnstile CAPTCHA | ✅ |
| Custom WAF Rules | ✅ |
| Rate Limiting | ✅ (basic thresholds) |
| Full Bot Reporting | – (Pro and above) |
🛠 When to Upgrade
- Pro Plan unlocks Super Bot Fight Mode and enhanced analytics.
- Business Plan adds more comprehensive detection.
- Enterprise Bot Management offers granular controls, ML scoring, and deep reports.
Upgrade when you need stronger accuracy, better bot performance visibility, or protection against targeted scraping.
🤝 Let’s Secure Your ColdFusion App Together
xByte Cloud specializes in hosting ColdFusion applications and helping developers like you apply the right balance of performance and protection. Whether you need help configuring Cloudflare, integrating Turnstile, or tuning your ColdFusion server for high-volume traffic, we’re here to help.
Let’s stop bots before they become a problem.
