A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a specialized type of firewall that operates at the application layer, offering robust protection for web systems using HTTP/HTTPS protocols. Unlike traditional firewalls, WAFs are specifically designed to guard against web-based attacks, making them essential in today's digital landscape.
Below is a list of some of the most popular open-source WAF projects in the community, ranked by their GitHub stars:
1. SafeLine
Official Introduction: serve as a reverse proxy to protect your web services from attacks and exploits.
Official GitHub: SafeLine
Stars: 11.6K
SafeLine is powered by intelligent semantic analysis algorithms, earning it high recognition among cybersecurity professionals. The Community Edition is a streamlined version of the enterprise-grade product, designed to be accessible and free for community use. Leveraging the robust protection capabilities of its enterprise counterpart, SafeLine ensures a high level of security. This combination of accessibility and reliability has made SafeLine a top choice on GitHub shortly after its release.
2. ModSecurity
ModSecurity is a classic in the realm of open-source WAFs, maintaining its popularity over the years.
Official GitHub: ModSecurity
Stars: 8K
Rather than being a full-fledged WAF, ModSecurity is a "WAF ruleset" that serves as the foundation for many WAF solutions. It lacks common features such as website management, log management, and a user interface, focusing solely on providing protective rules. ModSecurity requires additional development and customization, making it less user-friendly for beginners.
3. Awesome-WAF
Official Introduction: Web-application firewalls (WAFs) from security standpoint.
Official GitHub: Awesome-WAF
Stars: 6.1K
Awesome-WAF is a comprehensive collection of WAFs, including open-source and commercial options, as well as tools and resources related to web application security. This project serves as a valuable resource for security professionals and developers looking to explore and implement various WAF solutions in their environments.
4. BunkerWeb
Official Introduction: Open-source and next-generation Web Application Firewall (WAF).
Official GitHub: BunkerWeb
Stars: 5.4K
BunkerWeb is a full-featured web server designed to make your web services secure by default. It integrates seamlessly into existing environments like Linux, Docker, Swarm, and Kubernetes, and is fully configurable to suit various use cases.
5. wafw00f
Official Introduction: WAFW00F allows one to identify and fingerprint Web Application Firewall (WAF) products protecting a website.
Official GitHub: wafw00f
Stars: 5.1K
WafW00f is a specialized tool designed to detect and identify web application firewalls (WAFs) protecting a website. It helps security professionals understand what WAF is in place, allowing them to tailor their security assessments and penetration tests accordingly. WafW00f is widely used for its accuracy and ease of use in the security community.
6. NAXSI
Official Introduction: an open-source, high performance, low rules maintenance WAF for NGINX.
Official GitHub: NAXSI
Stars: 4.8K
NAXSI stands for Nginx Anti-XSS & SQL Injection, targeting protection against cross-site scripting and SQL injection attacks specifically for the Nginx web server. It filters GET and PUT requests and, by default, operates as a DROP-by-default firewall, requiring specific ACCEPT rules to function correctly.
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