Why Every Homelab Needs SafeLine’s New Ruleset to Block Crawlers

When running a homelab—whether it’s a NAS, Home Assistant dashboard, or a small self-hosted app—you’re exposing some services to your home network or even the internet. The problem? Automated scanners, bots, and crawlers constantly sweep IP ranges looking for services to probe.

These requests may not always be malicious, but they’re noisy, can waste bandwidth, clutter your logs, and sometimes expose more than you’d like.

To help with this, SafeLine WAF has released a HomeLab Ruleset (Beta) designed specifically to block common scanning tools and crawler traffic. It’s lightweight, easy to use, and perfect for home users who want extra peace of mind.

What Are Scanners and Crawlers?

• Scanners are tools like Nmap or Nessus used to find open ports and vulnerabilities.
• Crawlers (bots) are automated programs—think Googlebot or AI scrapers—that index or copy content.

Why block them? Because your homelab is for you, not for random indexing or probing. Blocking these tools keeps your services private, reduces resource use, and keeps your logs clean.

What Makes SafeLine’s HomeLab Ruleset Different?

SafeLine’s ruleset focuses on HomeLab use cases, not production environments. That means:

• It’s aggressive in blocking patterns typically seen in scanners and crawlers.
• It’s optimized for common self-hosted setups: NAS, smart home dashboards, or personal websites.
• It’s not recommended for live production services—too many legitimate crawlers might be blocked.

What Does the Ruleset Include?

Whitelist:

• Allows /robots.txt for basic crawler guidance.

Blacklists:

1. AI Crawlers – User-Agent based blocking

1. Testing Tools – User-Agent based blocking

1. Search Engine Crawlers – User-Agent based blocking

1. Any User-Agent containing “Bot”

Supported Versions:

• SafeLine 7.3.0 and above.

How to Use the Ruleset in SafeLine WAF

1. Install SafeLine WAF in your homelab if you haven’t already.
2. Enable the HomeLab Ruleset (Beta) in your SafeLine dashboard.
3. Review and test to make sure nothing critical is blocked.
4. Monitor your logs to fine-tune rules or add exceptions.

Example SafeLine-style config:

rules:
  - name: Allow robots.txt
    match: URL == "/robots.txt"
    action: allow
  - name: Block AI Crawlers
    match: UA contains "AI"
    action: deny
  - name: Block Test Tools
    match: UA matches "Nmap|curl"
    action: deny
  - name: Block Search Engines
    match: UA matches "Googlebot|Bingbot"
    action: deny
  - name: Block Any Bot UA
    match: UA contains "bot"
    action: deny

Why This Matters

Homelabs are for experimentation, not open exposure. By enabling SafeLine’s HomeLab ruleset, you’re reducing noise, protecting your private apps, and gaining more control over what hits your network.

Benefits:

• Cleaner, more manageable logs.
• Fewer random hits from bots.
• Better security hygiene for your self-hosted projects.

Join the SafeLine Community

If you continue to experience issues, feel free to contact SafeLine support for further assistance.

• GitHub Repository
• Official Docs
• Discord Community