Bot Detection for Intelligent Systems with GCP reCAPTCHA

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Bot detection is a critical component of modern web applications to ensure that the service is used by real users and not by automated scripts often known as bots. Google's reCAPTCHA is a popular service that provides bot detection capabilities. With Pulumi, we can declare the infrastructure needed to secure an application with reCAPTCHA in a clear and concise way.

The resource we'll be using to integrate Google's reCAPTCHA into our infrastructure is `gcp.recaptcha.EnterpriseKey`. An enterprise key is required to use the reCAPTCHA Enterprise API which serves as the link between your application and the reCAPTCHA service.

Below is the Pulumi program written in Python, which sets up an enterprise key for reCAPTCHA with GCP:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_gcp as gcp

# Create a reCAPTCHA enterprise key for your GCP project.
# Ensure you've configured your GCP credentials to allow Pulumi to manage resources in your project.
recaptcha_enterprise_key = gcp.recaptcha.EnterpriseKey("my-recaptcha-key",
    display_name="my-recaptcha-key",
    web_settings=gcp.recaptcha.EnterpriseKeyWebSettingsArgs(
        allowed_domains=["example.com"],  # Replace with your domain
        integration_type="SCORE",
        challenge_security_preference="SECURITY"
    )
)

# Export the reCAPTCHA key name, which can be used in your application configuration.
pulumi.export("recaptcha_key_name", recaptcha_enterprise_key.name)
```

### Breakdown of the Pulumi program:

1. We start by importing the `pulumi` and `pulumi_gcp` modules, which contain the necessary classes and methods to work with Pulumi and Google Cloud services.

2. We create an instance of `gcp.recaptcha.EnterpriseKey` which provisions the enterprise key needed to incorporate reCAPTCHA in our applications.
    - `display_name`: A human-readable name for the key, which can be displayed in the admin console.
    - `web_settings`: Configuration for the key specific to web integrations (`EnterpriseKeyWebSettingsArgs`).
        - `allowed_domains`: A list of domains where this key can be used. Only requests made from these domains will be accepted by reCAPTCHA.
        - `integration_type`: Specifies the type of reCAPTCHA challenge. `SCORE` is used for reCAPTCHA v3, which returns a score to help you decide whether to accept the interaction.
        - `challenge_security_preference`: Specifies the preference of security level for the challenges presented to the users.

3. At the end of the program, we use `pulumi.export` to output the name of the reCAPTCHA key. This is useful for referencing the key in other parts of your infrastructure or application code.

### Post-program explanation:

- The `recaptcha_enterprise_key.name` exported at the end of the program will be the identifier required by your applications to integrate with reCAPTCHA. You can inject this into your application's configuration during deployment or runtime.

- Remember to replace `"example.com"` with your actual domain name where you'd like to implement bot detection.

- This program assumes you have already set up your GCP credentials for Pulumi to manage your GCP resources. Visit the [Pulumi installation and setup guide](https://www.pulumi.com/docs/get-started/gcp/begin/) for GCP to ensure everything is correctly configured.

By integrating this generated key into your web application, you will leverage Google's advanced risk analysis to keep malicious software from engaging in abusive activities on your site.