Why All WAF Products Suck! (And Why You Still See Them Everywhere)

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2 years ago
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Technology AppSec Application Security Web Application Security Application Security Testing Application Security Basics AppSec Program Web security OWASP OWASP Top 10 cyber security

In this episode of the *Why All AppSec Products Suck* series, we turn our attention to the **Web Application Firewall (WAF)**—once hailed as the cornerstone of AppSec defense, now often viewed as little more than a checkbox for compliance.

Understand the fundamentals before comparing these products:
* Imperva WAF
* F5 WAF
* FortiWeb
* ModSecurity
(Imperva WAF vs F5 WAF vs FortiWeb vs ModSecurity)

While WAFs still have a place in the security stack, especially for catching low-level attacks and meeting regulatory requirements, they come with **deep architectural limitations**, **false positive problems**, and **evasion blind spots** that you need to understand before relying on one.

🔍 **What you'll learn in this episode:**
- What WAFs actually do (and what they don’t)
- Why they fail to parse complex, modern HTTP payloads
- Their historical relevance vs. current limitations
- Why most WAFs operate in alert-only mode
- When a WAF might be helpful—and when it won’t help at all

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⏱️ **Chapters:**
1. 00:00 – Intro & goals of the series
2. 01:15 – What is a WAF and how it compares to firewalls
3. 02:45 – Early WAFs vs. modern traffic complexity
4. 04:10 – Parsing issues and why WAFs “fail open”
5. 05:25 – False positives, evasion, and operational pain
6. 06:30 – Alert-only mode and limited practical utility
7. 07:45 – When WAFs still help (barely)
8. 08:40 – Wrap-up and preview of the RASP episode

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📚 **This episode is part of a comprehensive series**, where we cover each category of App Sec products:
* SAST: Static Application Security Testing
* DAST: Dynamic Application Security Testing
* IAST: Interactive Application Security Testing
* SCA: Software Composition Analysis
* WAF: Web Application Firewall
* RASP: Runtime Application Self-Protection (Next-Gen WAF)
* Manual Pen-Testing of Applications
(SAST vs DAST vs IAST vs SCA vs WAF vs RASP vs Pen-Testing)

🎞️ **Watch the full playlist**:
[AppSec Product Comparison Series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr15vRqvmtdW-LxrY_fFGNV8ub4_d_Qoc)

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🌐 **More Content & Resources**
- Website: https://danondev.com
- Twitter: @Dan_On_Dev
- Instagram: @dan_on_dev
- Facebook: @danondev

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