cloudscraper
A simple Python module to bypass Cloudflare's anti-bot page (also known as "I'm Under Attack Mode", or IUAM), implemented with Requests. Cloudflare changes their techniques periodically, so I will update this repo frequently.
This can be useful if you wish to scrape or crawl a website protected with Cloudflare. Cloudflare's anti-bot page currently just checks if the client supports Javascript, though they may add additional techniques in the future.
Due to Cloudflare continually changing and hardening their protection page, cloudscraper requires a JavaScript Engine/interpreter to solve Javascript challenges. This allows the script to easily impersonate a regular web browser without explicitly deobfuscating and parsing Cloudflare's Javascript.
For reference, this is the default message Cloudflare uses for these sorts of pages:
Checking your browser before accessing website.com.
This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly.
Please allow up to 5 seconds...
Any script using cloudscraper will sleep for ~5 seconds for the first visit to any site with Cloudflare anti-bots enabled, though no delay will occur after the first request.
Donations
If you feel like showing your love and/or appreciation for this project, then how about shouting me a coffee or beer :)
Installation
Simply run pip install cloudscraper. The PyPI package is at https://pypi.python.org/pypi/cloudscraper/
Alternatively, clone this repository and run python setup.py install.
Dependencies
- Python 3.x
- Requests >= 2.9.2
- requests_toolbelt >= 0.9.1
python setup.py install will install the Python dependencies automatically. The javascript interpreters and/or engines you decide to use are the only things you need to install yourself, excluding js2py which is part of the requirements as the default.
Javascript Interpreters and Engines
We support the following Javascript interpreters/engines.
- ChakraCore: Library binaries can also be located here.
- js2py: >=0.67
- native: Self made native python solver (Default)
- Node.js
- V8: We use Sony's v8eval() python module.
Updates
Cloudflare modifies their anti-bot protection page occasionally, So far it has changed maybe once per year on average.
If you notice that the anti-bot page has changed, or if this module suddenly stops working, please create a GitHub issue so that I can update the code accordingly.
- Many issues are a result of users not updating to the latest release of this project. Before filing an issue, please run the following command:
pip show cloudscraper
If the value of the version field is not the latest release, please run the following to update your package:
pip install cloudscraper -U
If you are still encountering a problem, open an issue and please include:
- The full exception and stack trace.
- The URL of the Cloudflare-protected page which the script does not work on.
- A Pastebin or Gist containing the HTML source of the protected page.
- The version number from
pip show cloudscraper.
Usage
The simplest way to use cloudscraper is by calling create_scraper().
import cloudscraper
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper() # returns a CloudScraper instance
# Or: scraper = cloudscraper.CloudScraper() # CloudScraper inherits from requests.Session
print(scraper.get("http://somesite.com").text) # => "<!DOCTYPE html><html><head>..."
That's it...
Any requests made from this session object to websites protected by Cloudflare anti-bot will be handled automatically. Websites not using Cloudflare will be treated normally. You don't need to configure or call anything further, and you can effectively treat all websites as if they're not protected with anything.
You use cloudscraper exactly the same way you use Requests. cloudScraper works identically to a Requests Session object, just instead of calling requests.get() or requests.post(), you call scraper.get() or scraper.post().
Consult Requests' documentation for more information.
Options
Brotli
Description
Brotli decompression support has been added, and it is enabled by default.
Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| allow_brotli | (boolean) | True |
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(allow_brotli=False)
Browser / User-Agent Filtering
Description
Control how and which User-Agent is "randomly" selected.
Parameters
Can be passed as an argument to create_scraper(), get_tokens(), get_cookie_string().
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| browser | (string) chrome or firefox |
None |
Or
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| browser | (dict) |
browser dict Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| browser | (string) chrome or firefox |
None |
| mobile | (boolean) | True |
| desktop | (boolean) | True |
| platform | (string) 'linux', 'windows', 'darwin', 'android', 'ios' |
None |
| custom | (string) | None |
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(browser='chrome')
or
# will give you only mobile chrome User-Agents on Android
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
browser={
'browser': 'chrome',
'platform': 'android',
'desktop': False
}
)
# will give you only desktop firefox User-Agents on Windows
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
browser={
'browser': 'firefox',
'platform': 'windows',
'mobile': False
}
)
# Custom will also try find the user-agent string in the browsers.json,
# If a match is found, it will use the headers and cipherSuite from that "browser",
# Otherwise a generic set of headers and cipherSuite will be used.
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
browser={
'custom': 'ScraperBot/1.0',
}
)
Debug
Description
Prints out header and content information of the request for debugging.
Parameters
Can be set as an attribute via your cloudscraper object or passed as an argument to create_scraper(), get_tokens(), get_cookie_string().
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| debug | (boolean) | False |
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(debug=True)
Delays
Description
Cloudflare IUAM challenge requires the browser to wait ~5 seconds before submitting the challenge answer, If you would like to override this delay.
Parameters
Can be set as an attribute via your cloudscraper object or passed as an argument to create_scraper(), get_tokens(), get_cookie_string().
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| delay | (float) | extracted from IUAM page |
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(delay=10)
Existing session
Description:
If you already have an existing Requests session, you can pass it to the function create_scraper() to continue using that session.
Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| sess | (requests.session) | None |
Example
session = requests.session()
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(sess=session)
Note
Unfortunately, not all of Requests session attributes are easily transferable, so if you run into problems with this,
You should replace your initial session initialization call
From:
sess = requests.session()
To:
sess = cloudscraper.create_scraper()
JavaScript Engines and Interpreters
Description
cloudscraper currently supports the following JavaScript Engines/Interpreters
- ChakraCore
- js2py
- native: Self made native python solver (Default)
- Node.js
- V8
Parameters
Can be set as an attribute via your cloudscraper object or passed as an argument to create_scraper(), get_tokens(), get_cookie_string().
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| interpreter | (string) | native |
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(interpreter='nodejs')
3rd Party Captcha Solvers
Description
cloudscraper currently supports the following 3rd party Captcha solvers, should you require them.
- 2captcha
- anticaptcha
- CapMonster Cloud
- deathbycaptcha
- 9kw
- return_response
Note
I am working on adding more 3rd party solvers, if you wish to have a service added that is not currently supported, please raise a support ticket on github.
Required Parameters
Can be set as an attribute via your cloudscraper object or passed as an argument to create_scraper(), get_tokens(), get_cookie_string().
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
| captcha | (dict) | None |
2captcha
Required captcha Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Required | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| provider | (string) 2captcha |
yes | |
| api_key | (string) | yes | |
| no_proxy | (boolean) | no | False |
Note
if proxies are set you can disable sending the proxies to 2captcha by setting no_proxy to True
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
interpreter='nodejs',
captcha={
'provider': '2captcha',
'api_key': 'your_2captcha_api_key'
}
)
anticaptcha
Required captcha Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Required | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| provider | (string) anticaptcha |
yes | |
| api_key | (string) | yes | |
| no_proxy | (boolean) | no | False |
Note
if proxies are set you can disable sending the proxies to anticaptcha by setting no_proxy to True
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
interpreter='nodejs',
captcha={
'provider': 'anticaptcha',
'api_key': 'your_anticaptcha_api_key'
}
)
CapMonster Cloud
Required captcha Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Required | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| provider | (string) capmonster |
yes | |
| clientKey | (string) | yes | |
| no_proxy | (boolean) | no | False |
Note
if proxies are set you can disable sending the proxies to CapMonster by setting no_proxy to True
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
interpreter='nodejs',
captcha={
'provider': 'capmonster',
'clientKey': 'your_capmonster_clientKey'
}
)
deathbycaptcha
Required captcha Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Required | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| provider | (string) deathbycaptcha |
yes | |
| username | (string) | yes | |
| password | (string) | yes |
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
interpreter='nodejs',
captcha={
'provider': 'deathbycaptcha',
'username': 'your_deathbycaptcha_username',
'password': 'your_deathbycaptcha_password',
}
)
9kw
Required captcha Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Required | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| provider | (string) 9kw |
yes | |
| api_key | (string) | yes | |
| maxtimeout | (int) | no | 180 |
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
interpreter='nodejs',
captcha={
'provider': '9kw',
'api_key': 'your_9kw_api_key',
'maxtimeout': 300
}
)
return_response
Use this if you want the requests response payload without solving the Captcha.
Required captcha Parameters
| Parameter | Value | Required | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| provider | (string) return_response |
yes |
Example
scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper(
interpreter='nodejs',
captcha={'provider': 'return_response'}
)
Integration
It's easy to integrate cloudscraper with other applications and tools. Cloudflare uses two cookies as tokens: one to verify you made it past their challenge page and one to track your session. To bypass the challenge page, simply include both of these cookies (with the appropriate user-agent) in all HTTP requests you make.
To retrieve just the cookies (as a dictionary), use cloudscraper.get_tokens(). To retrieve them as a full Cookie HTTP header, use cloudscraper.get_cookie_string().
get_tokens and get_cookie_string both accept Requests' usual keyword arguments (like get_tokens(url, proxies={"http": "socks5://localhost:9050"})).
Please read Requests' documentation on request arguments for more information.
User-Agent Handling
The two integration functions return a tuple of (cookie, user_agent_string).
You must use the same user-agent string for obtaining tokens and for making requests with those tokens, otherwise Cloudflare will flag you as a bot.
That means you have to pass the returned user_agent_string to whatever script, tool, or service you are passing the tokens to (e.g. curl, or a specialized scraping tool), and it must use that passed user-agent when it makes HTTP requests.
Integration examples
Remember, you must always use the same user-agent when retrieving or using these cookies. These functions all return a tuple of (cookie_dict, user_agent_string).
Retrieving a cookie dict through a proxy
get_tokens is a convenience function for returning a Python dict containing Cloudflare's session cookies. For demonstration, we will configure this request to use a proxy. (Please note that if you request Cloudflare clearance tokens through a proxy, you must always use the same proxy when those tokens are passed to the server. Cloudflare requires that the challenge-solving IP and the visitor IP stay the same.)
If you do not wish to use a proxy, just don't pass the proxies keyword argument. These convenience functions support all of Requests' normal keyword arguments, like params, data, and headers.
import cloudscraper
proxies = {"http": "http://localhost:8080", "https": "http://localhost:8080"}
tokens, user_agent = cloudscraper.get_tokens("http://somesite.com", proxies=proxies)
print(tokens)
# => {
'cf_clearance': 'c8f913c707b818b47aa328d81cab57c349b1eee5-1426733163-3600',
'__cfduid': 'dd8ec03dfdbcb8c2ea63e920f1335c1001426733158'
}
Retrieving a cookie string
get_cookie_string is a convenience function for returning the tokens as a string for use as a Cookie HTTP header value.
This is useful when crafting an HTTP request manually, or working with an external application or library that passes on raw cookie headers.
import cloudscraper
cookie_value, user_agent = cloudscraper.get_cookie_string('http://somesite.com')
print('GET / HTTP/1.1\nCookie: {}\nUser-Agent: {}\n'.format(cookie_value, user_agent))
# GET / HTTP/1.1
# Cookie: cf_clearance=c8f913c707b818b47aa328d81cab57c349b1eee5-1426733163-3600; __cfduid=dd8ec03dfdbcb8c2ea63e920f1335c1001426733158
# User-Agent: Some/User-Agent String
curl example
Here is an example of integrating cloudscraper with curl. As you can see, all you have to do is pass the cookies and user-agent to curl.
import subprocess
import cloudscraper
# With get_tokens() cookie dict:
# tokens, user_agent = cloudscraper.get_tokens("http://somesite.com")
# cookie_arg = 'cf_clearance={}; __cfduid={}'.format(tokens['cf_clearance'], tokens['__cfduid'])
# With get_cookie_string() cookie header; recommended for curl and similar external applications:
cookie_arg, user_agent = cloudscraper.get_cookie_string('http://somesite.com')
# With a custom user-agent string you can optionally provide:
# ua = "Scraping Bot"
# cookie_arg, user_agent = cloudscraper.get_cookie_string("http://somesite.com", user_agent=ua)
result = subprocess.check_output(
[
'curl',
'--cookie',
cookie_arg,
'-A',
user_agent,
'http://somesite.com'
]
)
Trimmed down version. Prints page contents of any site protected with Cloudflare, via curl.
Warning: shell=True can be dangerous to use with subprocess in real code.
url = "http://somesite.com"
cookie_arg, user_agent = cloudscraper.get_cookie_string(url)
cmd = "curl --cookie {cookie_arg} -A {user_agent} {url}"
print(
subprocess.check_output(
cmd.format(
cookie_arg=cookie_arg,
user_agent=user_agent,
url=url
),
shell=True
)
)
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