Web Application Firewalls

A WAF sits between the web application and the internet, analyzing HTTP traffic to detect and block malicious requests.

How WAFs Work

  • Signature-based detection - Matches known attack patterns
  • Anomaly-based detection - Identifies deviations from normal traffic
  • Behavioral analysis - Detects suspicious patterns over time
  • Cloudflare WAF
  • AWS WAF
  • ModSecurity (open source)
  • Akamai Kona Site Defender

Limitations

  • WAFs can be bypassed with encoding and obfuscation
  • False positives can block legitimate traffic
  • Not a substitute for secure coding practices