playwright-bot-bypass

Playwright Bot Bypass

Reduce bot detection using rebrowser-playwright + real headed Chrome. Passes fingerprint checkers (bot.sannysoft.com, areyouheadless) and avoids triggering CAPTCHAs on Google. Not a guaranteed bypass for CDP/runtime-aware enterprise bot managers — see "Detection Coverage" for measured results.

Authorized use only. This is for QA, accessibility testing, and research on sites you own or are permitted to test. Respect each site's Terms of Service, robots.txt, and applicable law. Do not use it to bypass paywalls, abuse rate limits, or scrape against a site's stated wishes.

How Detection Is Defeated (and by which layer)

Evasion comes from three layers, not one — most of it is the real browser, not hand-written JS:

Detection Point	Standard Playwright (headless)	Defeated by
CDP / Runtime.enable leak	Present (headless tell)	rebrowser + REBROWSER_PATCHES_RUNTIME_FIX_MODE (auto-set)
window.__pwInitScripts (isPlaywright)	Present	artifact strip (init script deletes it every nav)
navigator.webdriver	true	rebrowser (reports false; we do NOT delete it — undefined is itself a tell)
WebGL Renderer	SwiftShader (software)	channel:'chrome' + headed mode (real GPU)
User Agent	Contains "HeadlessChrome"	channel:'chrome' (real Chrome UA) — no JS override
Canvas fingerprint	Software-rendered tell	headed real Chrome (genuine GPU canvas) — no JS noise
navigator.plugins	Empty array	headed real Chrome (genuine PluginArray) — no JS fake
navigator.languages	['en-US'] only	locale option (native, worker-consistent — no JS getter)

Why so little hand-written JS? Across v2.1/v2.2 the old fake-PluginArray, canvas-noise, hardcoded-hardwareConcurrency, permissions-override, webdriver delete, and navigator.languages getter were all removed — every one created a detectable inconsistency (own-property tells, worker mismatches, undefined webdriver, an Illegal invocation crash). v2.2 keeps exactly two active measures: strip Playwright's __pwInitScripts artifact, and enable rebrowser's Runtime-fix. Everything else is the genuine, self-consistent real browser. Less faking = more consistent = harder to detect.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ with ESM support (.mjs files)
• Google Chrome installed (not just Chromium)
• Headed mode required (headless: false) — no display = no stealth

Verify Chrome is installed:

# macOS
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --version
# Windows
"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --version
# Linux
google-chrome --version

Quick Start

1. Install

npm init -y && npm install rebrowser-playwright

2. Create stealth-test.mjs

import os from 'node:os';
import path from 'node:path';

// Enable rebrowser's Runtime.enable fix BEFORE importing the library.
process.env.REBROWSER_PATCHES_RUNTIME_FIX_MODE ??= 'addBinding';
const { chromium } = await import('rebrowser-playwright');

const browser = await chromium.launch({
  headless: false,                                  // headed = real GPU/canvas
  channel: 'chrome',                                // real Chrome = real UA/WebGL/plugins
  args: ['--disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled']
});

// `locale` sets navigator.languages + Accept-Language natively & consistently.
const context = await browser.newContext({ locale: 'ko-KR' });

// The ONLY init script: strip Playwright's main-world signature. Touch NOTHING
// on navigator — the real browser's values are already genuine & consistent.
await context.addInitScript(() => {
  for (const k of Object.getOwnPropertyNames(window)) {
    if (/^__pw|pwInitScripts|playwright/i.test(k)) {
      try { delete window[k]; } catch {}
    }
  }
  if (!window.chrome) window.chrome = {};
});

const page = await context.newPage();

try {
  await page.goto('https://bot.sannysoft.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });
  const out = path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'stealth-test.png');
  await page.screenshot({ path: out });
  console.log(`Screenshot saved: ${out}`);
} finally {
  await browser.close();
}

3. Run

node stealth-test.mjs

Using the Template (Recommended)

The scripts/stealth-template.mjs provides a reusable factory with all patches pre-applied:

import { createStealthBrowser, humanDelay, humanType, simulateMouseMovement } from './scripts/stealth-template.mjs';

const { browser, page } = await createStealthBrowser();

try {
  await page.goto('https://example.com');

  // Human-like mouse movement (avoids Cloudflare Turnstile)
  await simulateMouseMovement(page);

  // Human-like typing instead of instant fill
  await humanType(page, 'input[name="q"]', 'search query');
  await humanDelay(300, 800);
} finally {
  await browser.close();
}

Template Options

const { browser, context, page } = await createStealthBrowser({
  headless: false,             // Required for stealth (default)
  viewport: { width: 1280, height: 800 },  // Default
  locale: 'ko-KR',            // Browser locale (default)
  userAgent: null,             // Custom UA (optional; default = real Chrome UA)
  storageState: './session.json',  // Cookie persistence (optional)
  proxy: { server: 'http://proxy:8080' },  // Proxy (optional)
  noSandbox: false             // Opt-in --no-sandbox (Linux root/CI only; it's a bot signal)
});

// Save session for reuse
import { saveSession } from './scripts/stealth-template.mjs';
await saveSession(context, './session.json');

What the Template Actually Does

The template (v2.2) keeps the active surface to exactly two measures:

Measure	Why
Strip window.__pwInitScripts / __playwright* (init script, every nav)	Removes the deterministic isPlaywright signature detectors key on
REBROWSER_PATCHES_RUNTIME_FIX_MODE=addBinding (auto-set before import)	Hides the CDP Runtime.enable headless leak

It touches nothing on navigator. Everything else is delegated to the real browser (channel:'chrome' + headed): genuine User-Agent, WebGL/GPU renderer, canvas fingerprint, PluginArray, self-consistent permission/hardware values, and (via the locale option) native worker-consistent navigator.languages + Accept-Language.

Removed across v2.1/v2.2 (each was net-negative — faked values inconsistently with the real environment): fake navigator.plugins, canvas getImageData noise, hardcoded hardwareConcurrency/deviceMemory, outerWidth/Height offset, the permissions override (crashed with Illegal invocation), the navigator.webdriver delete (made it undefined — a tell), and the navigator.languages getter (own-property + worker-mismatch tells).

Launch arg: --disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled. --no-sandbox is opt-in ({ noSandbox: true }) — it is both a security risk and an automation signal, so it is off by default.

Heavy SPAs (TikTok/IG/FB) may print non-fatal [rebrowser-patches] cannot get world warnings under addBinding mode — the page still loads. Switch to REBROWSER_PATCHES_RUNTIME_FIX_MODE=alwaysIsolated to silence them if needed.

Scripts

• scripts/stealth-template.mjs — Reusable stealth browser factory (all examples import this)
• scripts/bot-detection-test.mjs — Verify bypass at bot.sannysoft.com

Examples

• examples/stealth-google-search.mjs — Google search without CAPTCHA
• examples/ab-test.mjs — Side-by-side detected vs stealth comparison
• examples/stealth-twitter-scrape.mjs — Twitter/X profile scraping

Note: ab-test.mjs requires both rebrowser-playwright AND playwright:

npm install rebrowser-playwright playwright && npx playwright install chromium

All screenshots are saved to the OS temp directory (os.tmpdir()) — /tmp on macOS/Linux, %TEMP% on Windows.

Detection Coverage (measured 2026-06-10, macOS headed Chrome, v2.2)

Honest, tested results. v2.2's artifact-strip + Runtime-fix flipped every fingerprint/automation detector to pass:

Detector	Result	Note
bot.sannysoft.com	✅ all green	webdriver false, real WebGL/UA/plugins
arh.antoinevastel.com/bots/areyouheadless	✅ "not Chrome headless"
hmaker.github.io/selenium-detector	✅ "Passing"	no chromedriver
bot-detector.rebrowser.net	✅ 0 red	__pwInitScripts stripped, no Runtime leak, webdriver false
deviceandbrowserinfo.com/are_you_a_bot	✅ "You are human!"	isBot:false, isPlaywright:false
browserscan.net/bot-detection	✅ "Normal"	CDP test passes (Runtime-fix)
iphey.com	✅ "Trustworthy"	was "Unreliable" before v2.2
creepjs	✅ 0% headless / 0% stealth	fuzzy "38% like headless" is not a detection
nowsecure.nl (Cloudflare Turnstile)	⚠️ interactive challenge shown	behavioral/IP gate — not a fingerprint check; not auto-passed

Reliability: 9/9 repeat runs clean (the __pwInitScripts strip held across every navigation).

How v2.2 achieves this (and the one thing it can't fix)

Two levers, both built into createStealthBrowser():

1. Artifact strip — an init script deletes window.__pwInitScripts / __playwright* (the deterministic isPlaywright signature) on every navigation.
2. REBROWSER_PATCHES_RUNTIME_FIX_MODE=addBinding — set automatically before import; hides the CDP Runtime.enable leak.

The residual leak: window.__playwright_builtins__ is a separate, non-configurable Playwright global that cannot be deleted or redefined. None of the detectors above key on it today, but a future detector could. No rebrowser version (you're on the latest, 1.52.0) removes it — tracked upstream in rebrowser-patches#110, open with no fix.

Takeaway: clean against fingerprint + automation-framework detection. Still not a guaranteed bypass for behavioral/IP systems (Cloudflare Turnstile, DataDome, Kasada) or login walls. For those, add residential IPs + real interaction, or switch engines — patchright (drop-in) or nodriver (structurally avoids the whole CDP/automation-protocol class).

Real community sites (single logged-out load, residential IP, 2026-06-10)

Tested whether real sites bot-block a v2.2 page load (NOT a login judgment):

Site	Result
Reddit, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads, X (direct URL), Quora, TikTok	🟢 content fully loaded — no bot challenge, no CAPTCHA
Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn	🟡 content shell loads behind the standard logged-out login modal — NOT a bot block / checkpoint / HTTP 999

Key result: none returned a bot challenge or hard block. The "hardest" sites (IG/FB/LinkedIn) served the normal logged-out human experience (a login modal over visible content), which means the stealth passed as a real user. Caveat: this is one load each on a clean residential IP. At volume, IG/FB/LinkedIn enforce datr-cookie aging, HTTP 999, and rate limits — those are IP/account problems, not fingerprint problems, and this skill does not address them. TikTok's signed-API actions (beyond profile view) also still need a warmed session.

Limitations

• Requires headless: false (headed mode with display)
• Needs real Google Chrome installed (channel: 'chrome')
• Some sites may still detect based on behavior patterns — use humanDelay, humanType, simulateMouseMovement
• Does not bypass CAPTCHAs, only prevents triggering them
• TLS/JA3 fingerprint is handled by channel: 'chrome' (uses real Chrome binary)
• __pwInitScripts leak (see Detection Coverage) is unfixable at the skill level — it's inherent to rebrowser-playwright 1.52.0

Python Support

undetected-chromedriver (Recommended)

pip install undetected-chromedriver

import undetected_chromedriver as uc

# Match your Chrome version: check chrome://version
driver = uc.Chrome()  # auto-detects version

driver.get("https://www.google.com")
search_box = driver.find_element("name", "q")
search_box.send_keys("your search query")
search_box.submit()

Python playwright-stealth only patches at JS level — WebGL still shows SwiftShader. Use undetected-chromedriver instead.

Alternative: Call Node.js from Python

import subprocess
result = subprocess.run(['node', 'stealth-script.mjs', query], capture_output=True)

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND	Run npm install rebrowser-playwright in the same directory as your script
Browser not opening	Verify Chrome is installed (see Prerequisites)
WebGL shows SwiftShader	You're effectively headless / GPU-less. Run headed (headless: false) with channel: 'chrome' on a machine with a real GPU; SwiftShader is the software fallback, not an import issue
Still getting detected	Add simulateMouseMovement() and humanDelay() between actions
Process hangs	Ensure browser.close() is in a finally block
SyntaxError: await	File must be .mjs or have "type": "module" in package.json