A Web Application Firewall (WAF) sits between your website and the internet, filtering and blocking malicious HTTP traffic before it reaches your server. Unlike a traditional firewall that operates at the network level, a WAF understands web application protocols and can detect attacks targeting your WordPress site.
What a WAF Protects Against
- SQL Injection — Attackers injecting malicious database queries.
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) — Injecting malicious scripts into pages.
- Brute force attacks — Repeated login attempts to guess passwords.
- File inclusion attacks — Exploiting vulnerable plugins to include malicious files.
- DDoS attacks — Flooding your server with traffic to take it offline.
- Zero-day exploits — Virtual patching for newly discovered vulnerabilities.
Types of WAF
- Cloud-based WAF — Runs on external servers (Cloudflare, Sucuri). Traffic is routed through the WAF before reaching your server. Easiest to set up.
- Plugin-based WAF — Runs on your WordPress server (Wordfence). Inspects traffic at the application level.
- Server-level WAF — Integrated into the web server (ModSecurity for Apache). Most efficient but requires server access.
Popular WordPress WAF Solutions
- Cloudflare — Cloud WAF with free tier, includes CDN.
- Wordfence — Most popular WordPress security plugin with built-in WAF.
- Sucuri — Cloud-based WAF and CDN, malware scanning.
- NinjaFirewall — Lightweight server-level WAF for WordPress.
What InspectWP Checks
InspectWP can detect some WAF solutions through response headers and DNS records, such as Cloudflare, Sucuri, or other cloud-based WAF providers.