Why SafeLine Could Be the Best Free WAF for Your Website

Lulu - Aug 22 - - Dev Community

When it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of a Web Application Firewall (WAF), BlazeHTTP stands out as a simple yet powerful tool. Designed specifically for this purpose, BlazeHTTP provides a comprehensive assessment of WAF protection.

BlazeHTTP Overview

  • Extensive Sample Library: BlazeHTTP currently includes 33,669 samples, and this set is regularly updated to stay current with emerging threats.
  • No Setup Required: Available in both GUI and command-line versions, BlazeHTTP is easy to use. You can either download precompiled versions from the Releases page or clone the repository to compile it yourself.
  • Detailed Reporting: BlazeHTTP generates in-depth reports on all test executions, covering attributes like execution time, status codes, interception outcomes, and more.

Key Testing Metrics

Metric Description Calculation Method
Detection Rate Measures how effectively the WAF identifies threats. A low detection rate indicates gaps in coverage. Number of attack samples intercepted
False Positive Rate Evaluates the WAF's impact on legitimate traffic. A high rate suggests that the WAF is incorrectly blocking safe traffic. Number of normal samples intercepted
Accuracy Combines detection and false positive rates for a balanced view of WAF performance. -
Detection Timing Assesses WAF performance by measuring how quickly threats are detected. Longer times suggest slower responses. -

Sample Tests

  • Normal Sample:

    GET /rc-virtual-list@3.5.2/lib/hooks/useHeights.js HTTP/1.1
    Host: npm.staticblitz.com
    User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/114.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
    Accept: */*
    Origin: https://stackblitz.com
    
  • Malicious Sample:

    GET /vulnerabilities/sqli_blind/?id=1%27+or+%27%27%3D%27&Submit=Submit HTTP/1.1
    Host: 10.10.3.128
    Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1
    

SafeLine vs CloudFlare

Metric CloudFlare (Free) SafeLine (Free, Balance Mode) SafeLine (Free, Strict Mode)
Total Samples 33,669 33,669 33,669
Successful 33,350 33,669 33,669
Errors 319 0 0
Detection Rate 10.70% 71.65% 76.17%
False Positive Rate 0.07% 0.07% 0.22%
Accuracy 98.40% 99.45% 99.38%
Average Time 288.96 ms 70.05 ms 64.34 ms

SafeLine vs ModSecurity

Metric ModSecurity (PARANOIA 1) ModSecurity (PARANOIA 4) SafeLine (Free, Balance Mode) SafeLine (Free, Strict Mode)
Total Samples 33,669 33,669 33,669 33,669
Successful 33,669 33,669 33,669 33,669
Errors 0 0 0 0
Detection Rate 69.74% 94.61% 71.65% 76.17%
False Positive Rate 17.58% 52.46% 0.07% 0.22%
Accuracy 82.20% 48.34% 99.45% 99.38%
Average Time 31.15 ms 28.89 ms 70.05 ms 64.34 ms
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