Sharon428931

Posted on Jul 18

I Compared SafeLine WAF with Cloudflare and ModSecurity—Here’s What I Found

#safeline #waf #cloudflare #beginners

In Part 1, we covered how to deploy and configure SafeLine WAF, a free and open-source web application firewall developed by Chaitin Tech.

Now, it's time to put it to the test.

Smart Detection with Semantic Analysis

Unlike traditional WAFs that rely purely on rule matching, SafeLine features a built-in semantic analysis engine that interprets the intent behind requests—resulting in more accurate detection and fewer false positives.

Advanced Protection Features

Web Attack Defense

Protects against: SQL Injection, XSS, RCE, CRLF, XXE, SSRF, etc.

Bot Management

CAPTCHA, rate limiting, anti-crawling mechanisms

HTTP Flood Protection

Automatically throttles IPs that exceed request thresholds

Authentication Enforcement

Supports login protection for sensitive API endpoints

Threat Intelligence

Auto-blocks IPs from known malicious actors

Simulate Real Attacks

Try these examples to test SafeLine’s blocking capabilities:

# SQL Injection
https://your-site.com/?id=1+and+1=2+union+select+1

# XSS
https://your-site.com/?id=<img+src=x+onerror=alert()>

# Path Traversal
https://your-site.com/?id=../../../../etc/passwd

# Code Injection
https://your-site.com/?id=phpinfo();system('id')

# XXE
https://your-site.com/?id=<?xml+version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE+foo+SYSTEM+"">

Benchmark with BlazeHTTP

Use this Docker command to benchmark SafeLine WAF using BlazeHTTP, an open-source WAF testing tool:

docker run --rm --net=host chaitin/blazehttp:latest /app/blazehttp -t "http://127.0.0.1:8888"

Detection Performance (Real Test Results)

WAF	Accuracy	Detection Rate	Miss Rate	False Positives
SafeLine (Personal - Balanced)	99.45%	71.65%	28.35%	0.07%
SafeLine (Personal - Strict)	99.38%	76.17%	23.83%	0.22%
SafeLine (Pro - Strict)	99.66%	90.68%	9.32%	0.07%
Cloudflare WAF	98.40%	10.70%	89.30%	0.07%
ModSecurity (Level 1)	82.39%	82.26%	17.74%	17.61%
ModSecurity (Level 4)	48.32%	96.77%	3.23%	52.49%

Metric Definitions

Accuracy = (Correct Blocks + Correct Passes) / Total Samples
Detection Rate = Correct Blocks / Attack Samples
Miss Rate = Missed Attacks / Attack Samples
False Positive Rate = Incorrect Blocks / Normal Samples

Performance & Resource Usage

Editions & Throughput

Personal Edition: Lightweight, runs on 1 core CPU + 1 GB RAM, handles ~800 QPS
Lite Edition: Optimized for low-resource scenarios
Pro Edition: High-performance, scalable with full feature set

Minimum Requirements

CPU: 1 core
RAM: 2 GB
Disk: 60 GB (2000 IOPS recommended)

To scale: Add +1 core, +2 GB RAM, and +40 GB disk for every 1000 QPS needed.

Join the Community

SafeLine is open source, battle-tested, and ready for production.

Give it a try, join the community, and help us shape the future of open-source WAFs.

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