My Experience with SafeLine: A Powerful and Free Web Application Firewall

I've always admired Chaitin Technology, so when I heard that they released a community edition of their WAF product, "SafeLine," I was eager to give it a try. I had known about SafeLine for quite some time, but it was previously only available as a paid version. Now that it's free, I decided to see how the community edition performs.

What is SafeLine?

SafeLine is a web application firewall (WAF) built with cutting-edge technologies like big data and machine learning. It continuously monitors global threat intelligence, attack data, and vulnerability information in real time. SafeLine can quickly identify and classify unknown security threats, accurately determine the type and origin of attacks, and promptly issue alerts. Additionally, SafeLine features a self-developed intelligent defense engine and a user-friendly web interface, offering efficient attack prevention and comprehensive security monitoring.

Key Features:

1. Out-of-the-Box Protection: No need to manually maintain rules; the default configuration provides excellent protection.
2. Rigorous Detection: The rules are strict, resulting in almost no false positives.
3. Advanced Threat Detection: Capable of detecting unknown attacks and deeply encoded threats.
4. Sophisticated Defense: Can detect attacks that try to bypass traditional signature-based defenses.

Installation and Usage

If you're interested in trying out SafeLine, here's how you can get started.

1. Download Links:

• Official Documentation: https://docs.waf.chaitin.com/en/tutorials/install
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/chaitin/SafeLine
• Online Demo: https://demo.waf.chaitin.com:9443

2. Installation:

To install SafeLine, you'll need a server with Docker installed (Docker version >= 20.10.14, Docker Compose >= 2.0.0). Here’s a quick guide to setting it up:

1.Install Docker:

   yum install -y yum-utils
   yum-config-manager --add-repo https://mirrors.aliyun.com/docker-ce/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
   yum -y install docker-ce
   systemctl start docker

2.Check Docker Version:

   yum list installed | grep docker

3.Download and Install SafeLine:
Run the following command to start the installation:

   bash -c "$(curl -fsSLk https://waf.chaitin.com/release/latest/setup.sh)"

Once the installation is complete, you can access the SafeLine dashboard by visiting http://[Server_IP]:9443.

Configuring SafeLine WAF

Here’s how I set up SafeLine WAF on a dedicated server, which filters all incoming traffic before it reaches my website server. This setup ensures that all attacks and traffic are handled by SafeLine first.

Server Specs:

• CPU: 2 cores
• RAM: 2GB
• Bandwidth: 20Mbps
• Operating System: Linux

Steps to Configure:

1. Add Your Website Domain:
   After logging into the SafeLine dashboard, go to the protection section and add the domain you want to protect.

2. Update Domain DNS:
   Point your domain to the IP of the server where SafeLine is installed, ensuring that all traffic is filtered through SafeLine first.

3. Enable Dynamic Protection:
   SafeLine's dynamic protection feature is impressive. It can encrypt your website pages in real time, making the content unreadable to potential attackers. I usually enable this feature on login and registration pages, which are critical points that need extra protection.

Now that your server is configured with SafeLine, it effectively functions as a high-security server. Any attack attempts will be intercepted by SafeLine before they can reach your actual website server.