Open Source Web Application Firewall with Zero-Day Detection and Bot Protection

From zero-day exploits to large-scale bot assaults — the demand for a robust, self-hosted, and user-friendly net utility safety resolution has by no means been better.

SafeLine is at present essentially the most starred open-source Net Utility Firewall (WAF) on GitHub, with over 16.4K stars and a quickly rising international person base.

This walkthrough covers what SafeLine is, the way it works, and why it is changing into the go-to resolution over cloud-based WAFs.

What’s SafeLine WAF?

SafeLine is a self-hosted net utility firewall that acts as a reverse proxy, filtering and monitoring HTTP/HTTPS site visitors to dam malicious requests earlier than they attain your backend net purposes. Not like cloud-based WAFs, SafeLine runs totally by yourself servers—supplying you with unmatched visibility and knowledge sovereignty.

Key Options of SafeLine WAF

Complete Assault Prevention

SafeLine successfully blocks a variety of frequent and superior net assaults, together with SQL injection(SQLi), cross-site scripting (XSS), OS command injection, CRLF injection, XML Exterior Entity (XXE) assaults, Server Facet Request Forgery (SSRF), and listing traversal, and many others.

Zero-Day Detection by way of Semantic Evaluation

Not like conventional signature-based WAFs, SafeLine makes use of a patented semantic evaluation engine that deeply parses HTTP site visitors semantics.

This method permits it to detect complicated and zero-day assaults with excessive accuracy, leading to an industry-leading detection charge of 99.45% and an ultra-low false constructive charge of 0.07%. (The chart beneath compares SafeLine with the 2 variations of a globally acknowledged open-source WAF.)

Sturdy Bot Safety

SafeLine delivers complete, multi-layered defenses in opposition to automated bot assaults, a rising menace vector liable for credential stuffing, malicious scraping, stock hoarding, and vulnerability scanning.

It combines a number of out-of-box highly effective mechanisms:

• CAPTCHA Challenges: Dynamically issued to tell apart human customers from automated purchasers, particularly in suspicious or high-risk site visitors situations.
• Dynamic Safety: Randomly encrypts and obfuscates frontend code, resembling HTML and JavaScript, earlier than delivering it to the shopper. This prevents bots from reliably parsing web page constructions or interacting with DOM components, rendering automated scripts ineffective.
• Anti-Replay Mechanisms: Detect and block reuse of tokens, headers, or payloads usually leveraged in scripted assaults or credential stuffing campaigns.

HTTP Flood DDoS Mitigation

HTTP flood DDoS assaults try to overwhelm servers by sending large volumes of HTTP requests in a brief time period. These assaults can exhaust server sources, degrade efficiency, or take purposes offline totally.

To counter this, SafeLine implements charge limiting to cap request frequency and mitigate abuse. These measures are extremely configurable, permitting defenders to tailor thresholds primarily based on real-world site visitors patterns.

For sudden site visitors spikes—whether or not authentic or malicious—SafeLine supplies a digital ready room mechanism. This ensures service availability by queuing extra customers and releasing them steadily, stopping backend overload whereas sustaining a good and orderly entry expertise.

Authentication Challenges

SafeLine can also be designed with Zero Belief rules in thoughts—by no means belief, all the time confirm. It provides configurable customer authentication to safe entry to protected purposes, enhancing safety by enforced id checks.

As a built-in id gateway, it helps fashionable authentication protocols resembling OIDC and integrates seamlessly with id suppliers like GitHub and others.

SafeLine additionally helps Single Signal-On (SSO) to streamline person authentication and simplify login expertise within the meantime.

Better of all, these enterprise-grade id options are included free of charge.

Easy Deployment in Minutes

SafeLine is designed for fast setup and straightforward administration. It requires the next atmosphere to be put in and run:

• Working System: Linux (x86_64 or arm64)
• Dependencies: Docker (model 20.10.14 or larger) and Docker Compose (model 2.0.0 or larger)
• Minimal System Necessities: 1 CPU core, 1 GB of RAM, and 5 GB of obtainable disk house

As soon as the atmosphere is prepared, set up takes only a few minutes with a single command.

bash -c "$(curl -fsSLk https://waf.chaitin.com/launch/newest/supervisor.sh)" -- --en

A user-friendly, wizard-based interface guides you thru configuration. Full documentation is obtainable right here.

Why Select SafeLine Over Cloud-Primarily based WAFs?

Not like conventional cloud-based WAFs that route your site visitors by third-party infrastructure, SafeLine provides full deployment autonomy. Listed below are the benefits:

• Full Knowledge Management: Delicate site visitors and logs stay on-premises, lowering publicity to third-party cloud dangers.
• Value Effectivity: Avoids recurring subscription charges frequent with cloud WAFs, particularly helpful for high-traffic environments.
• Free and Out-of-Field Enterprise Options: Superior menace detection, bot safety, id authentication, and extra—sometimes gated behind “premium” tiers elsewhere—are out-of-box and included free of charge.

Use Instances Preferrred for SafeLine

SafeLine is a flexible resolution constructed for a variety of net utility safety wants. It is significantly well-suited for:

• Organizations with strict knowledge privateness or regulatory compliance necessities
• Groups Focused by Refined Bots and Automated Threats
• Small and medium-sized companies in search of reasonably priced, enterprise-grade safety
• DevOps and Safety Groups Requiring Full Deployment Management and Customization
• Tasks requiring fast deployment and straightforward upkeep

Ultimate Phrases

SafeLine stands out as a robust, open-source various to conventional cloud-based WAFs. With cutting-edge zero-day detection, sturdy bot mitigation, and nil belief–aligned id options—all bundled right into a self-hosted, easy-to-deploy package deal—SafeLine empowers builders, safety groups, and organizations of all sizes to take management of their net safety.