Deploy KillBot website protection using a pre-configured image from Google Cloud

Google Cloud Server with KillBot Protection

All website traffic will be proxied through KillBot’s secure server, allowing malicious bots to be blocked before they reach your site. This protects against phone number and price scraping, SMS balance fraud, security scanning, and similar threats. By default, KillBot blocks all basic HTTP bots without JavaScript support. Advanced JS bots can also be blocked manually if needed.

Using the dashboard at https://my.kill-bot.net/, you can customize traffic handling — blocking certain visitors, showing CAPTCHA to others, or allowing unrestricted access.

Additional Features:

  • Google Ads Bot Filtering
    Bots from Google Ads are grouped into an audience, a look-alike audience is generated, and bids are set to -100%. This ensures your ads won’t appear for bots or similar suspicious traffic.

  • L7 DDoS Protection
    KillBot’s high-performance verification page automatically blocks basic HTTP bots that attack servers with mass requests. Most websites crash under 100–500 concurrent connections, but KillBot’s verification page can handle thousands with ease.

  • Full Customization
    Since KillBot runs on your own server, you have full control over traffic. You can modify the verification page’s design, integrate a custom CAPTCHA, or use real-time bot detection data in your own algorithms.

Don’t Want to Use Google Cloud?

For instructions on deploying KillBot on your own Ubuntu server, visit: https://killbot.ru/node/31.

 

How to Set Up a Google Cloud Virtual Machine with KillBot Support:

  1. A preconfigured KillBot image is already available in Google Cloud — simply deploy it.

  2. Create a project (click "Create Project"): https://console.cloud.google.com/cloud-resource-manager

    Create a project in Google Cloud Console

  3. Enter a project name (e.g., "killbot") and note the Project ID (e.g., killbot-457713). Yours will differ:

    Enter project name

  4. Select the newly created project (make it active). After creation, a notification will appear — click "Select Project":

    Select KillBot project

  5. Enable the Compute Engine API (payment details may be required): https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/library/compute.googleapis.com

    Compute Engine API

  6. Open Cloud Shell Editor: https://console.cloud.google.com/cloudshelleditor (ensure third-party cookies are enabled in your browser).

  7. Click "Open Terminal" Open terminal in Google Shell Editor

  8. Switch to the KillBot project (using the Project ID from step 3, e.g., killbot-457713). Run:

    gcloud config set project killbot-457713

  9. Deploy the KillBot image (run these three commands sequentially):

    gsutil cp gs://kill-bot-net-deployments/kill-bot-net-deployment.zip .

    unzip kill-bot-net-deployment.zip

    gcloud deployment-manager deployments create killbot --config compute.yaml
    Commands to deploy KillBot image

  10. Verify the VM with KillBot is running. Go to instances: https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances, ensure the KillBot project is selected, and confirm the VM is active:
    Google Cloud VM with KillBot deployed

  11. Connect your websites to KillBot via SSH. Follow the command-line instructions below.

The steps above have deployed the KillBot verification page on your own server.

That's it — Ubuntu image with pre-installed Apache2 is configured to work in reverse proxy mode through the KillBot verification page. To connect your site to the KillBot verification page, the DNS A record of your domain must point to your KillBot server, and KillBot will proxy requests to your site's server only if the verification page is passed.

KillBot File Locations

In the Google Cloud image, KillBot files are located in the /opt/killbot directory.

Key files:

  • Verification page: /opt/killbot/html/verification.php (can be modified, but be careful not to break anything).

  • IP whitelist: /opt/killbot/wl-ip (list of IP addresses for which the KillBot screen is disabled).

  • User-Agent whitelist: /opt/killbot/wl-ua (list of user agents for which the KillBot screen is disabled).

IP whitelist format (wl-ip): 

  • Each IP address on a new line (file /opt/killbot/wl-ip).
  • Allowed IP ranges can be specified like this: "23.134.45." — this entry means visits from IPs starting with "23.134.45." are allowed. The same applies if you specify "23.134.".

UserAgent whitelist format (wl-ua): 

  • Each entry on a new line (file /opt/killbot/wl-ua).
  • Example: "google.bot"—if the user-agent contains both "google" and "bot," access is granted without restrictions.

Before connecting the KillBot screen to your domain:

  1. Change the domain's A record to point to your KillBot server's IP.
  2. Remove the AAAA record, as KillBot currently does not support IPv6.

Connecting a site to the KillBot screen

Sites can be connected to the KillBot verification page using the kb install command. Multiple sites can be connected to a single server.

Command example to connect a site to the KillBot verification page :

sudo kb install -e grigoriy.mmelnikov@gmail.com -ip 31.31.198.173 -le 1 -d g-video.ru -t 3Fgewe3Zzn0

Command-line parameters:

  • -e: Your email — an account will be created on https://my.kill-bot.net if you don't have one. If you already have an account, use its email.
  • -d: The domain of the site being connected to KillBot.
  • -ip: The IP address of the site's server (-d).
  • -le: Whether to issue a Let's Encrypt certificate (1) or not (0). If the site is behind Cloudflare, set le=0; otherwise, le=1 (default).
  • -t: The token for accessing your KillBot account. Log in to https://my.kill-bot.net and copy the token from: https://my.kill-bot.net/api-key.

 

This command (kb install) will create apache configuration files that connect the KillBot screen and proxy traffic to your site:

  • /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain-killbot.conf — configuration with the KillBot screen enabled.

  • /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.conf — reverse proxy configuration without KillBot verification page.

You can modify these configurations, but be cautious: re-running kb install for the same domain will overwrite the files.

ATTENTION!!!

The KillBot verification page can only be connected to a site after the domain's IP address already resolves to the KillBot server. Until then, issuing a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate is impossible.

After changing the domain's A record to the KillBot server's IP, wait for the DNS update to propagate—this usually takes 5 to 30 minutes.

If your site is already protected (e.g., via Cloudflare), change the domain's A record directly in Cloudflare's settings. In this case, a Let's Encrypt certificate is not required, and the KillBot screen can be connected immediately.

Commands for connecting a site to KillBot [Quick Start]

  1. If you don't have an account on https://my.kill-bot.net and the site is not behind a protection service like Cloudflare, use this command (replace -e -t -ip -d with your actual values):
    sudo kb install -e grigoriy.mmelnikov@gmail.com -ip 31.31.198.173 -d g-video.com
    This will create an account on https://my.kill-bot.net (login details will be sent to the email -e) and configure the server to connect the KillBot screen to the site.
  2. If the site is behind Cloudflare or a similar service, disable Let's Encrypt certificate generation (-le 0):
    sudo kb install -e grigoriy.mmelnikov@gmail.com -ip 31.31.198.173 -d g-video.com -le 0
    Here, le=0 means a self-signed certificate will be issued. A Let's Encrypt certificate cannot be issued because the site's A record will differ from the KillBot verification server.
  3. If you already have a https://my.kill-bot.net account, use your token -t from https://my.kill-bot.net/api-key:
    sudo kb install -e grigoriy.mmelnikov@gmail.com -ip 31.31.198.173 -d g-video.com -t 3Fgerwe3Zzn0
    In this case, the verification page script will be created in your existing account.

Managing the KillBot screen

You can enable or disable the KillBot screen for each connected domain (replace domain.com with your site's domain):

  • Enable KillBot screen:

    sudo kb ensite domain.com

  • Disable KillBot (traffic will be fully proxied to the site without the KillBot screen):

    sudo kb dissite domain.com
     
  • Restart the Apache2 server with KillBot screen:

    sudo kb reload

Updating IP and User-Agent whitelists

After modifying /opt/killbot/wl-ip or /opt/killbot/wl-ua, run with your command line params only:

kb install -e grigoriy.mmelnikov@gmail.com -ip 31.31.198.173 -d g-video.ru

Note: This will overwrite the KillBot Apache configuration, so if you made custom changes, be aware.