Hi @martje65,
Thank you for reporting this!
Looking at the exact URL from your log, that string is actually an HTML responsive image srcset attribute (notice the width descriptors: 300w, 100w, 500w, 600w).
This typically happens when:
- Badly configured scrapers/crawlers scrape your site and incorrectly try to fetch the entire
srcset attribute as if it were a single file URL.
- Alternatively, a theme template or image optimization plugin might have a small HTML typo where the
srcset value was accidentally placed into the src attribute.
How Advanced IP Blocker handles and stops this
You have multiple built-in layers in Advanced IP Blocker to automatically stop these repetitive requests:
- Automatic 404 Threshold Blocking (Active by default):
Navigate to Security → Settings → Threshold Blocking and verify the 404 Error Detection section:
- By default, any IP generating repetitive 404 requests (e.g., 10 errors within 60 seconds) will be automatically blocked by the firewall. You can lower the threshold (e.g., from 10 to 5) if you want the block to trigger even faster.
- Enable 404 Challenge / Endpoint Lockdown:
In the same Threshold Blocking section, you can configure the 404 action to trigger a JavaScript Challenge (Managed / Automatic). This forces automated bots hitting dead links to solve a cryptographic browser challenge before consuming server resources, filtering them out completely.
- Exclude Missing Images from 404 Tracking (Optional but NOT recommended):
If these 404s are causing too much log noise and you only want 404 protection to focus on exploit scanning (e.g., .php, .env, wp-config), you can add /wp-content/uploads/ to the Excluded 404 URLs textarea under Settings → Global URL Exclusions.
Pro Tip
Check your page source code or WooCommerce single product template for that product (test-product.jpg) to make sure an <img> tag is not outputting the full srcset inside src="". If the HTML on your site is clean, then it is 100% just dumb scraper bots, and the 404 Error Detection will keep blocking them automatically.
Please let us know if you need help tweaking the threshold settings!
Best regards,
Advanced IP Blocker Support Team
The HTML code is correct and it looks like the scrapers are for 80% from ONECABLE – OneCable Network LLC IP addresses and the rest are mostle from privet IP adresses and Fixed Line ISP’s.
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This reply was modified 1 day, 9 hours ago by
martje65.
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This reply was modified 1 day, 9 hours ago by martje65.
Hi @martje65,
You’re very welcome!
On modern websites, it is completely normal to see automated scrapers and bots constantly crawling the web and triggering invalid 404 requests.
The best approach here is simply to trust the plugin’s automated defenses and let Advanced IP Blocker do its job.
As long as you have 404 Error Detection enabled under Security → Settings → Threshold Blocking, the firewall is actively monitoring all traffic in the background. As soon as an aggressive IP exceeds your configured limit (e.g., 10 errors within 60 minutes), the plugin will automatically step in and block that IP address for the set duration (e.g., 24 hours), preventing it from wasting your server’s resources.
You don’t need to manually chase or block these individual IPs yourself—the plugin handles them automatically for you!
If you have any other questions in the future, don’t hesitate to reach out. Have a wonderful weekend!
Best regards,
Advanced IP Blocker Support Team
