During a recent Capture The Flag (CTF) competition focused on incident response, one question kept popping up:
"Why did you guys use SafeLine WAF in the challenge environment?"
Let’s break down the reasoning behind this choice — and why you might want to use it too.
Why Use a WAF in a CTF?
Incident response challenges should mimic real-world conditions. That means not just vulnerable apps, but also the kind of security infrastructure you'd expect to find in production — including a Web Application Firewall (WAF).
But we didn’t want to pick just any WAF.
Why SafeLine?
Before the event, we reached out to the SafeLine team just to be sure we weren’t violating any licensing terms — turns out it’s fully open-source and encouraged for this kind of use!
Here's why we went with SafeLine:
✅ 1. It's Free and Open Source
SafeLine is 100% free and already tops the GitHub trending list in the WAF category.
Perfect for events, side projects, and anyone not ready to shell out $$$ for commercial WAFs.
⚙️ 2. Super Easy to Deploy
One-liner install? Containerized setup? Yes and yes.
You don’t need to be a WAF expert — just run the install command and you're good to go:
bash -c "$(curl -fsSLk https://waf-ce.chaitin.cn/release/latest/setup.sh)"
Wait a minute or two, and boom — you're ready to add protected sites and start monitoring traffic.
🛡️ 3. Solid Protection
Even the free Personal Edition offers protection strong enough to beat out many paid WAFs.
We’ve had solid feedback from users — SafeLine just works.
Getting Started with SafeLine
After install, go to the Web Console. You can add domains, enable CC protection, bot protection, and authentication — all through the UI.
Want to test it out? Switch the protection mode to “Audited Mode” and scan your site using any attacking software to simulate attacks. You’ll see the alerts show up right away:
But What If Setup Fails?
If something breaks during setup, please don’t @ me in the group chat 🙃 — I’m not a developer, just a fellow user.
That said, the official SafeLine team is pretty responsive. Here’s how you can get help:
Final Thoughts
If you're hosting a CTF with incident response or attack-defense content, SafeLine is a no-brainer.
- Free and open-source
- Easy to install
- Realistic for simulation
- Active dev and support community
Give it a shot — you’ll be surprised how far it can take you.
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