Glossary
WAF
A WAF sits in front of your website and blocks attacks like SQL injection and XSS before they reach your servers. It's a specialized bouncer for web traffic.
What is WAF?
Web Application Firewall - a firewall specifically designed to protect web applications by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic.
Why Should You Care?
Without a WAF, attackers exploit common web vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) to bypass authentication, steal data, or inject malicious code directly into your application. A properly configured WAF stops many of these attacks at the HTTP layer before they reach your backend, reducing your attack surface and blocking entire categories of vulnerability-driven exploitation. Organizations using WAFs can lower incident response costs since threats are blocked before exploitation, and they help meet compliance requirements that mandate application-layer protection.
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Real-World Example
An e-commerce site deploys a WAF and immediately begins blocking large volumes of daily SQL injection attempts targeting its product search functionality, preventing attackers from reaching the database where customer payment data lives. The WAF also catches reflected XSS attacks attempting to inject malicious scripts into pages, which could otherwise lead to customer account takeovers. While a WAF is not a substitute for fixing the underlying code, it buys defenders critical time and blocks opportunistic attacks.
How to Protect Against WAF
- 1.
Deploy WAF in front of all public web apps
- 2.
Tune WAF rules to reduce false positives
Related Terms
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