Stop OWASP Top-10, Bots & L7 Attacks—Without Breaking UX
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) and Bot Management platform protect your websites, APIs, and apps against OWASP Top-10, credential stuffing, carding, scraping, and Layer-7 DDoS—while keeping user experience fast.
SolveForce designs WAF/Bot as part of a Zero-Trust, cloud-edge architecture with CDN, mTLS to origin, rate limits, virtual patching, and audit-grade evidence in SIEM.
Where WAF fits in the SolveForce model:
🔒 Security (Semantics) → Cybersecurity • 📊 Analytics/Automation → SIEM / SOAR
🌍 Edge Delivery → CDN • 🔗 On-Ramps → Direct Connect
🧠 Decision Layer → SolveForce AI • 🖧 Fabric → Networks & Data Centers
🎯 Outcomes (What you get)
- Real protection, low false-positives — OWASP Top-10 rules + behavioral/ML signals + allowlists.
- Bot defense that works — stops credential stuffing, carding, scraping, inventory hoarding; preserves good bots.
- L7 DDoS resilience — rate-limits, circuit breakers, auto-mitigation at the edge.
- Fast rollout — virtual patch 0-days in minutes; staged rule deployment; instant rollback.
- Evidence & control — full logs to SIEM, versioned rules, approvals, and RCA packs.
🧭 Scope (What we protect)
- Web apps & sites — forms, sessions, static/dynamic content (HTTP/2 + HTTP/3 QUIC).
- APIs — REST, GraphQL, gRPC/JSON; schema-aware validation, method/verb control, auth checks.
- Edge endpoints — CDN POPs, Anycast front doors, multi-cloud ingress. → CDN
- Origins — private or in colo; origin cloaking (allowlist WAF/CDN egress only). → Colocation
🧱 Controls (Spelled out)
Core WAF
- OWASP Top-10 signatures & behavior rules (SQLi, XSS, SSTI, RCE, SSRF, XXE, deserialization).
- Positive Security (allow-only) for critical flows (checkout, auth, admin).
- Schema-aware API protection (OpenAPI/GraphQL schema validation, strict verbs, payload size/type).
- mTLS to origin, HSTS, TLS 1.3; secure headers (CSP/Referrer-Policy/Frame-Options). → Encryption • PKI
Bot Management
- Good-bot registry & allowlists (search engines, monitoring).
- Device & browser fingerprinting, behavioral signals (mouse/scroll/timing), JS challenges, non-visual puzzles.
- Credential stuffing/card testing mitigation: velocity limits, IP/ASN/geo risk, step-up MFA hooks. → IAM / SSO / MFA
- Scraping protection: rate limits per path/identity; tokenized assets; watermarking.
L7 DDoS & Abuse
- Adaptive rate-limiters (per IP/session/API key/tenant).
- Circuit breakers for surges; progressive challenge → block.
- Anycast withdraw / SD-WAN sinkhole for sick POPs. → BGP Management • SD-WAN
- Pair with network DDoS for L3/4. → DDoS Protection
🧰 Architecture (Fast, safe, reversible)
- Edge first — rules run at CDN/WAF edge POPs; origin cloaked behind allowlists/mTLS. → CDN
- Staged rollout — canary % → region ring → global; auto-rollback on SLO dip.
- Change as code — versioned policies; PR approvals; CI smoke tests.
- Observability — near-real-time logs, traces, and metrics to SIEM; red/green dashboards. → SIEM / SOAR
📐 SLO Guardrails (Experience & safety you can measure)
| SLO (p95) | Target | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Edge added latency | ≤ 5–15 ms | Per request at POP |
| Rule deploy → live | ≤ 60 s | With staged canaries |
| Block/allow propagation | ≤ 60–120 s | Global POPs |
| False-positive rate | ≤ 1–2% | After tuning |
| DDoS auto-mitigation start | ≤ 30–60 s | From surge detect |
| Evidence completeness | 100% | Rule version + logs + action |
| Availability (edge fabric) | ≥ 99.95–99.99% | Multi-POP |
SLO breaches trigger SOAR fallback/rollback automatically. → SIEM / SOAR
🧪 Tuning Loop (Keep signal high, noise low)
1) Observe canary metrics (latency/FPs/challenges solved).
2) Refine rules (exclude safe params, add positive models); promote canary → region → global.
3) Segment policies (auth, checkout, API, admin) with different strictness.
4) Model bot behaviors per route; preserve good bots.
5) Review weekly FP/FN and abuse paths; publish diffs and RCAs.
🧩 Integrations (Reduce MTTR, raise fidelity)
- Identity — step-up MFA on risk; deny known bad sessions; sign/verify JWT; mTLS for partner APIs. → IAM / SSO / MFA • PKI
- Data — DLP to redact/mask sensitive fields; tokenization upstream. → DLP • Key Management / HSM
- Network — SD-WAN path pin, Anycast withdraw; NAC quarantine suspicious sources inside WAN. → SD-WAN • BGP Management • NAC
- NDR/EDR/XDR — correlate C2/beacons with WAF blocks; endpoint isolate on compromise. → NDR • EDR / MDR / XDR
- SOAR — playbooks for blocklists, purge caches, revoke sessions, notify owners. → SIEM / SOAR
🔒 Zero-Trust Edge (Practical policies)
- Origin cloaking — only WAF/CDN IPs may reach origins; private on-ramps for app backends. → Direct Connect
- mTLS to origin — cert-bound services; short-lived cert rotation. → PKI
- Signed URLs/Cookies — time-boxed access to assets; prevent link-sharing abuse.
- Per-tenant limits — rate/quotas keyed by customer/partner/app token.
- RBI / Read-only isolation for risky flows; API keys re-issued via PAM if leaked. → PAM
🧭 Reference Patterns (By outcome)
A) API-First App (REST/GraphQL/gRPC)
- Positive model (schema); strict verbs; HSTS/TLS1.3; JWT verify; per-key rate/quotas; mTLS partner flows; DLP on responses.
B) Auth & Checkout
- Bot defense (credential stuffing/carding); device fingerprint; step-up MFA on risk; CSP; replay protections; signed cookies.
C) Content & Media
- CDN tiered cache + WAF; anti-scraping; tokenized URLs; watermark; multi-CDN failover.
D) 0-Day Virtual Patch
- Emergency pattern deployed at edge in < 60 s; staged rollout; health monitors; auto-rollback if SLO dips; IR case with evidence.
📜 Compliance Mapping (Examples)
- PCI DSS — protect card entry pages; block card testing; log and retain evidence.
- HIPAA — PHI masking; mTLS; audit trails.
- ISO 27001 — A.12/A.13 controls for app and network security.
- NIST 800-53/171 — SC/AC families (boundary protection, access control).
- CMMC — boundary, monitoring, incident evidence.
All actions/decisions stream to SIEM with WORM options and case IDs. → SIEM / SOAR
🛠️ Implementation Blueprint (No-surprise rollout)
- Inventory endpoints (apps/APIs), routes, auth flows, known good bots.
- Pick edge (CDN/WAF POPs) and origin controls (mTLS, allowlists). → CDN • Direct Connect
- Define policies per surface (auth, checkout, API, admin, media).
- Canary first — deploy to 1–5%; measure FPs/latency; iterate; promote to regions → global.
- Wire analytics — logs/metrics to SIEM; SOAR playbooks for block/rollback/purge. → SIEM / SOAR
- Runbooks — 0-day virtual patch, bot surge, carding, scrape spikes; RCAs and weekly deltas.
- Drills — blackhole, origin lock-down, rate-limit stress, Anycast withdraw.
✅ Pre-Engagement Checklist
- 📄 App/API list, schemas (OpenAPI/GraphQL), known good bots.
- 🔐 TLS/mTLS posture; origin allowlist state. → Encryption • PKI
- 🧭 Bot use-cases (login, checkout, inventory); thresholds/quotas.
- 🧰 SIEM/SOAR destinations; alert & approval matrix. → SIEM / SOAR
- 💾 Cache/Tier plans; purge mechanics; tokenized URLs; watermarking. → CDN
- 🧪 Canary plan; rollback triggers; SLO dashboards.
- 📜 Compliance targets & evidence format.
🔄 Where WAF / Bot Fits (Recursive View)
1) Grammar — traffic rides Connectivity and the Networks & Data Centers fabric.
2) Syntax — Cloud & CDN shape delivery and caching.
3) Semantics — Cybersecurity preserves truth; WAF proves boundary control.
4) Pragmatics — SolveForce AI reduces noise, predicts surges, and auto-tunes policies.
5) Foundation — consistent terms via Primacy of Language.
6) Map — indexed in SolveForce Codex & Knowledge Hub.
📞 Deploy WAF / Bot That’s Fast, Safe & Auditable
Related pages:
Cybersecurity • CDN • DDoS Protection • SIEM / SOAR • IAM / SSO / MFA • ZTNA • SASE • SD-WAN • BGP Management • DLP • Encryption • Networks & Data Centers • Knowledge Hub