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Software Engineering vocabulary · APIs, Networking and Security

Web application firewall

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In software engineering, web application firewall means: A firewall that sits in front of web applications and filters HTTP traffic to block common web attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

In Turkish: web uygulama güvenlik duvarı, WAF

How it is used

Called a WAF, pronounced 'waff'. It can be a cloud service, an appliance or a module on the web server. Teams write WAF rules, run them first in detection mode and then switch to blocking mode. A WAF reduces risk but does not replace fixing the code.

Example sentences

  1. We put the old booking site behind a web application firewall until it can be rewritten.

  2. The web application firewall blocked the request because it looked like SQL injection.

Common collocations

  • WAF rule
  • cloud WAF
  • blocking mode
  • behind a WAF
  • firewallA hardware device or piece of software that checks network traffic and allows or blocks it according to a set of security rules.
  • SQL injectionAn attack in which someone types SQL code into a form or URL so that the database runs it, which can expose or delete data.
  • cross-site scriptingAn attack in which someone gets harmful JavaScript into a page that other users open, for example through a comment, so that the script runs in their browsers.
  • DDoSDistributed denial of service: an attack that floods a website or network with traffic from many machines at once so that real users cannot reach it.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: APIs, Networking and Security

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