Cloudflare captcha errors

[geekcubed]

Our server-side process which collects updates from connected accounts (when notified via a Subscription API) is intermittently failing with a http/403 error  -  specifically, this appears to be a Cloudflare catpcha intercept / redirect page.

We have fully implemented an exponential back-off process for handling Rate Limit (http/429) scenarios but this makes no sense to us as to how this error state fits into the flow (there is no reference to it in the WebApi).  What can we do to prevent / mitigate / handle this state?  The most annoying thing is that it only appears when we deploy to production (hosted on Azure) - we cannot replicate locally.

[Gordon-C]

Hi @geekcubed 

It sounds like the 403 message is coming from Cloudflare, correct?   I found this information on their web site that might help.

https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200169226-Why-am-I-getting-a-403-error-

Gordon

[geekcubed]

Thanks @Gordon-C 

The error is originating from CloudFlare - my assumption here is that Fitbit are utilizing their infrastructure to power the WebAPI.  There have been a couple of other occurrences of this issue reported on the forums - in those cases it has always been Fitbit themselves who seem to need to perform some action to fix the issue.

So far though I've had nothing but radio silence from official support - both here and via a support ticket.

[geekcubed]

@Gordon-Cany chance of getting an update on this?  I tried to reach out via Twitter and was told it was being investigated here.  I also opened an official support ticket ( #29174574 ) which has yet to receive a reply.

Searching the forum shows that this has occured before for other API users.  There is only one with an accepted solution ( https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Web-API-Development/CloudFlare-captcha-blocks-my-server-from-connect... ) - which seems to indicate you guys need to unblock our server IP addresses.

[Gordon-C]

Hi @geekcubed ,

I took ownership of the case you created and will continue the discussion through there.  I have requested some information from you so I can continue the investigation.

Gordon