chaitin-waf

The chaitin-waf plugin integrates with the Chaitin WAF (SafeLine) service to provide advanced detection and prevention of web-based threats, enhancing application security and protecting sensitive user data.

Response Headers​

The plugin can add the following response headers, depending on the configuration of append_waf_resp_header and append_waf_debug_header:

Examples​

The examples below demonstrate how you can configure chaitin-waf plugin for different scenarios.

Before proceeding, make sure you have installed Chaitin WAF (SafeLine).

Block Malicious Requests on a Route​

The following example demonstrates how to integrate with Chaitin WAF to protect traffic on a route, rejecting malicious requests immediately.

Configure the Chaitin WAF connection details using plugin metadata (update the address accordingly):

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9180/apisix/admin/plugin_metadata/chaitin-waf" -X PUT \
  -H 'X-API-KEY: ${ADMIN_API_KEY}' \
  -d '{
    "nodes": [
      {
        "host": "172.22.222.5",
        "port": 8000
      }
    ]
  }'

Create a route and enable chaitin-waf on the route to block requests identified to be malicious:

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9180/apisix/admin/routes" -X PUT \
  -H "X-API-KEY: ${ADMIN_API_KEY}" \
  -d '{
    "id": "chaitin-waf-route",
    "uri": "/anything",
    "plugins": {
      "chaitin-waf": {
        "mode": "block",
        "append_waf_resp_header": true,
        "append_waf_debug_header": true
      }
    },
    "upstream": {
      "type": "roundrobin",
      "nodes": {
        "httpbin.org:80": 1
      }
    }
  }'

❶ Set mode to block to block requests identified to be malicious.

❷ Set append_waf_resp_header to true to include WAF-related standard response headers.

❸ Set append_waf_debug_header to true to include WAF-related debugging response headers.

Send a standard request to the route:

curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/anything"

You should receive an HTTP/1.1 200 OK response.

Send a request with SQL injection to the route:

curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/anything" -d 'a=1 and 1=1'

You should see an HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden response similar to the following:

...
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF-STATUS: 403
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF-ACTION: reject
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF-SERVER: 172.22.222.5
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF: yes
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF-TIME: 3
...

{"code": 403, "success":false, "message": "blocked by Chaitin SafeLine Web Application Firewall", "event_id": "276be6457d8447a4bf1f792501dfba6c"}

Monitor Requests for Malicious Intent​

This example shows how to integrate with Chaitin WAF to monitor all routes with chaitin-waf without rejection, and to reject potentially malicious requests on a specific route.

Configure the Chaitin WAF connection details using plugin metadata (update the address accordingly) and configure the mode:

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9180/apisix/admin/plugin_metadata/chaitin-waf" -X PUT \
  -H 'X-API-KEY: ${ADMIN_API_KEY}' \
  -d '{
    "nodes": [
      {
        "host": "172.22.222.5",
        "port": 8000
      }
    ],
    "mode": "monitor"
  }'

❶ Set mode to monitor in the plugin metadata. This applies to all chaitin-waf plugin instances if mode is not specified on a route.

Create a route and enable chaitin-waf without any configuration on the route:

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9180/apisix/admin/routes" -X PUT \
  -H "X-API-KEY: ${ADMIN_API_KEY}" \
  -d '{
    "id": "chaitin-waf-route",
    "uri": "/anything",
    "plugins": {
      "chaitin-waf": {}
    },
    "upstream": {
      "type": "roundrobin",
      "nodes": {
        "httpbin.org:80": 1
      }
    }
  }'

Send a standard request to the route:

curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/anything"

You should receive an HTTP/1.1 200 OK response.

Send a request with SQL injection to the route:

curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/anything" -d 'a=1 and 1=1'

You should also receive an HTTP/1.1 200 OK response as the request is not blocked in the monitor mode, but observe the following in the log entry:

2025/09/09 11:44:08 [warn] 115#115: *31683 [lua] chaitin-waf.lua:385: do_access(): chaitin-waf monitor mode: request would have been rejected, event_id: 49bed20603e242f9be5ba6f1744bba4b, client: 172.20.0.1, server: _, request: "POST /anything HTTP/1.1", host: "127.0.0.1:9080"

If you explicitly configure the mode on a route, it will take precedence over the configuration in the plugin metadata. For instance, if you create a route like this:

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9180/apisix/admin/routes" -X PUT \
  -H "X-API-KEY: ${ADMIN_API_KEY}" \
  -d '{
    "id": "chaitin-waf-route",
    "uri": "/anything",
    "plugins": {
      "chaitin-waf": {
        "mode": "block"
      }
    },
    "upstream": {
      "type": "roundrobin",
      "nodes": {
        "httpbin.org:80": 1
      }
    }
  }'

Send a standard request to the route:

curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/anything"

You should receive an HTTP/1.1 200 OK response.

Send a request with SQL injection to the route:

curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/anything" -d 'a=1 and 1=1'

You should see an HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden response similar to the following:

...
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF-STATUS: 403
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF-ACTION: reject
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF: yes
X-APISIX-CHAITIN-WAF-TIME: 3
...

{"code": 403, "success":false, "message": "blocked by Chaitin SafeLine Web Application Firewall", "event_id": "c3eb25eaa7ae4c0d82eb8ceebf3600d0"}