Management of bot detection in a content delivery network

A computing apparatus comprising:

• a storage system;
• a processing system operatively coupled to the storage system;
• and
• program instructions stored on the storage system to provide bot detection in a content delivery network that, when executed by the processing system, direct the processing system to:
• identify a content request without a valid token for content not cached on the cache node;
• in response to the content request, generate a synthetic response for the content request, wherein the synthetic response includes at least a request for a proof of work and fingerprinting attributes associated with an end user device that generated the content request;
• communicate the synthetic response to the end user device
• obtain a response from the end user device to the synthetic response;
• determine that the content request is associated with a bot based on the response;
• and
• in response to determining that the content request is associated with a bot, prevent a second content request to an origin server to obtain the content.

A method comprising:

• identifying a content request without a valid token for content not cached on the cache node;
• in response to the content request, generating a synthetic response for the content request, wherein the synthetic response includes at least a request for a proof of work and fingerprinting attributes associated with an end user device that generated the content request;
• obtaining a response from the end user device to the synthetic response;
• determining whether the response satisfies at least one criterion defined by a customer of the content delivery network to indicate a bot;
• when the response satisfies the at least one criterion, preventing a second content request to an origin server to obtain the content;
• and
• when the response fails to satisfy the at least one criterion:
• obtaining the content from an origin server;
• and
• providing the content to the end user device.